“‘This is the new slavery’: Migrant farm workers underpaid, abused and injured”

Harvesting cannabis in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley as a migrant labourer in 2023, Maria recalls being surprised when her boss invited her and two friends for dinner at his home in the nearby mountains....

Maria is among tens of thousands from around the world who come to Canada...often living in makeshift housing and working long, physically demanding days in sweltering summer heat, mostly for minimum wage…

...president of Desert Hills Estate Winery in the Okanagan, employed Maria in 2023. He was criminally charged in April with sexual assault based on her criminal complaint...

Toor declined an interview but his Vancouver lawyer, Vincent Michaels, said in writing that his client “vigorously asserts his innocence and looks forward to the opportunity a trial will provide to fully defend himself.” ...

In an interview...[the] owner of Triumph Produce, said she disagrees with the Labour Relations Board decision. She alleges Mills and the other Jamaican workers were paid according to the work they did, which she says was very little. ...

In its statement, Monette Farms said it provided first aid right after the ATV accident and that it offered to take him to the hospital that day, but he refused....