A cannabis company in Canada is named in a class action lawsuit recently filed by two migrant farm workers who say their rights were violated under Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.
The lawsuit, seeking a half billion dollars in compensation, was filed in Ontario against the Attorney General of Canada. It alleges that the federal government in Canada violated the workers’ rights to liberty and security of the person under section 7 of the Charter.
The Plaintiffs, Kevin Palmer from Jamaica and Andrel Peters from Grenada, are agricultural workers who came to Canada on a series of fixed-term contracts as part of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP-Agricultural) programs. The lawsuit contends that the two workers brought this action on their own behalf and that of all other current or former migrant agricultural workers in the SAWP and the TFWP-Agricultural Stream over the past 15 years.
They allege that the imposition of “tied employment” in both programs violates the rights of Class Members under sections 7 and 15 of the Charter because it prevents workers from leaving their employment and finding a new job in Canada.
The lawsuit alleges that Peters, a 28-year-old father of two from Grenada, first came to Canada in 2018 through the SAWP on a five-month contract to work at a cannabis farm near Leamington that the lawsuit says was operated by federally licensed cannabis producer Tilray, formerly by Aphria. (In December, 2020, Aphria and Tilray announced plans for a merger, with Aphria losing its name in the deal.)
Read more at https://stratcann.com/news/canadian-cannabis-company-named-in-lawsuit-against-federal-government/
