NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration critic, said the UN report should come as no surprise to the government, as it echoes “what migrant workers and labour advocates have been saying for a very long time.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan says the power imbalance that leads to abuse is structural to the temporary foreign worker program, not just its low-wage stream. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
“The way the program is set up exposes workers to exploitation and abuse because they’re reliant on their employer to retain their status in Canada,” Kwan explained. “If they face abuse and exploitation and complain about it, they stand to lose their job, and—in the worst-case scenario—they stand to be deported back to their country of origin.”
Kwan said the government has taken a “haphazard approach” to addressing problems with the TFWP to date, focused almost solely on the low-wage stream, but—while misuse of that stream is “particularly deplorable”—she said the root of the problem is structural to the entire program.
“The government has to address the main structural issue, and that is the power imbalance that exists between the temporary foreign worker and the employer,” Kwan said. “The only way to do that is to ensure that the temporary foreign workers actually have landed status on arrival, then they are not dependent on the employer, and would not have to suffer potential abuses and exploitation.”
“It doesn’t matter what stream it is, all the temporary foreign workers programs subject migrant workers to potential exploitation because of that power imbalance,” Kwan said, adding, though, that the NDP supports calls to end the program’s low-wage stream.
While the government and groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce may reject the UN rapporteur’s characterization of the program, the recent Senate report found similar abuses within the program.
"People are rightfully furious and deeply concerned to learn that a man allegedly linked to a terrorist group and heinous terrorist acts was given Canadian citizenship by the Liberal government," she said in a statement.
"This alarming failure only adds to the concerns that Canadians already have about Canada's public safety and immigration system."
On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee agreed to investigate the case amid questions about the immigration screening process for both men.
The committee hearings, set to begin later this month, will likely zero in on Canada's immigration process, its security screening capacity and how security officials handle domestic threats.
The New Democratic Party’s MP for Vancouver East Jenny Kwan says she believes she was also targetted.
“There’s no question in my mind that the diaspora community and, particularly, the Chinese Canadian community has been impacted,” she said.
She says hate-related incidents are happening because of interference, but the inquiry is required to get to the truth.
“So we’re not under the same cloud of suspicion, for elected officials to be suspected of being ‘traitors,’ quote unquote, of Canada, and if we don’t, sort of, get to the bottom of it we will continue to live under this cloud,” she said.
So did Poilievre really build just six affordable housing units in that time?
No.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed to the Star that the number came from an answer to an order paper question tabled by NDP MP Jenny Kwan in December.
(MPs are able to pose questions to the government that result in a formal response, often in the form of written answers.)
Kwan had asked for a breakdown of the federal funding that was provided to support the construction of non-profit, community, co-operative and purpose-built rental housing — along with how many of those units were built — while Harper’s Conservatives were in power.
In its response to Kwan’s question, CMHC noted that there were limitations to some of the data it can provide.
During the 2015-2016 fiscal year included in the agency’s breakdown — the time frame relevant to Poilievre’s responsibility for the file — the document notes that across Canada, six non-profit or community housing units were built, all in Quebec.
The Member of Parliament for his riding of Vancouver East, Jenny Kwan, penned a letter to the CRA advocating for Masse in November 2022.
"We actually have a contract that he has with AIDS Vancouver and there are invoices that he has issued that's related to the work that he's done," said Kwan over a ZOOM interview on Sunday.
"This has happened, by the way, to other constituents of mine whose income is less regular if you will, on a contract basis," added Kwan.
She said the CRA told her that they need verification to show that a person's money has gone into their bank account, but Kwan says that's not always the process for low-income earners.
"People who are on a tight income, whose income finances are coming and going very rapidly, a lot of people don't deposit that money into their account, they literally cash the cheque," said Kwan.
He has written to Vancouver East NDP MP Jenny Kwan and also met with B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma last December.
Kwan’s office told Global News the MP has brought Mr. Kabayabaya’s concerns regarding victim services to the B.C. Attorney General and Solicitor General’s attention, and said it was told the province would respond to Kabayabaya directly.
Global News has reached out to the B.C. Attorney General’s ministry for a response.
