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Of those surveyed some statistics are worth repeating: 43 per cent were paid less than minimum wage, 52 per cent did not receive overtime pay, 61 per cent did not receive public holiday pay and more than 20 per cent of respondents were owed wages.

No, exploitation is not "cultural"

The Importance of The Fight for 15 and Fairness for Immigrant Workers

No Future for Labour without Real Solidarity with Immigrants and Migrants

Like supporting the call of migrant workers for status, supporting The Fight for $15 and Fairness is a step towards building genuine solidarity across racial and ethnic lines. 

Byron Cruz refers to his cell phone as 911 for undocumented immigrants. Cruz is an outreach worker with migrants rights group Sanctuary City, and connects undocumented immigrants with the health care services they need.

Byron Cruz helps connect undocumented immigrants with health care professionals who won't report them to the CBSA.

The committee is one of the most well-respected human rights bodies in the world, comprised of independent and eminent international law experts from every continent. My experiences in Geneva affirmed my impression that the committee approaches the Herculean task of ensuring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with professionalism and rigour. After reviewing thousands of pages of documentation, listening to hours of testimony from NGOs and the Canadian government, and grilling government representatives with insightful questions, on Thursday, the committee issued its final verdict.

The concluding observations for Canada are breathtaking in their scope, covering issues related to national security, Aboriginal Peoples' rights, prisoners' rights, and even freedom of expression and association for human rights defenders.

The document is a sobering reminder of how much Canada has changed in the 10 years since our last review and we should be outraged that, in such a short time, our international reputation has been so tarnished. We have gone from being a global leader in the protection of human rights - the gold standard, even - to a country that repeatedly ignores UN recommendations, engages in suppression of dissent, and enables cruel treatment of migrants. At seven pages in length, the UN's assessment of Canada is necessary pre-election reading for anyone wishing to chart the changes wrought to our society in the past nine years of Conservative government rule.

Of particular interest to me, of course, were the concluding observations and recommendations related to Canada's treatment of non-citizens, people like Hassan. The committee expressed grave concerns around laws that allow for the mandatory detention of asylum-seekers who arrive by boat, recent cuts to the interim federal health program for asylum-seekers, and indefinite detention of migrants.

The committee recommended that Canada ensure that there is proper oversight over CBSA, place time limits on immigration detention, and ensure there are viable alternatives to detention. It also recommended that those held in provincial jails be granted access to treatment centres for mental health issues.

These recommendations are an important vindication of the rights of non-citizens, thousands of whom are detained in maximum-security jails every year, including vulnerable migrants such as asylum-seekers, torture survivors and those with serious mental health issues, people like Hassan.

However, the UN's strong recommendations will quickly become cold comfort for Hassan's family if Canada does nothing to implement them. Despite the death of at least 11 immigration detainees held in CBSA custody since 2000, Canada has done nothing to end arbitrary detention and cruel treatment of non-citizens held without charge. Now that the UN has made recommendations to end rights violations against immigration detainees, we must press all the major political parties to commit to implementing the recommendations if elected. Renu J. Mandhane is executive director of the international human rights program at the University of Toronto's faculty of law.

Sponsored immigrants are not eligible for medical or financial benefits until their 10-year sponsorship period ends, and even then are eligible only for partial benefits. Longterm-care beds are unavailable for immigrant seniors during this time unless their families pay.

When they do enter such facilities, language and food issues can make them feel isolated and affect their health.

assumption that ethnic seniors will be taken care of by their families - and won't need services

We are, overall, quite pleased that the committee recognized that indefinite detention and the lack of alternatives are serious problems with the system in Canada," Mandhane said in an interview. "It hits all the key points we have raised. The fact that the Canadian government is required to report back within a year on its recommendations speaks to the seriousness of the issue."

Canada's immigration detention system has been under the spotlight in recent years, after the deaths of detainees in custody, including Mexican migrant Lucia Vega Jimenez in Vancouver in 2013 and Somali native Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan, a mentally ill man who died in a Peterborough hospital in June. Last year alone, Canada detained 8,519 people - more than half in Ontario - who violated immigration law. While detainees were held an average of 23 days, 58 individuals had been detained for more than a year, including four who had been in jail for five years and more.

"All provinces and cities will likely be saying, 'We think we can play a role here and we want to have a chance to do so.' " Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger added that his province would like to welcome up to 8 per cent of the Syrian asylum seekers - about twice Manitoba's proportion of the overall Canadian population. "We know that Manitobans want to do their part in welcoming these innocent victims of war [and helping them] find a better life," he said.

In a conference call with reporters, Immigration Minister John McCallum said he's aware that officials in places from Victoria to Halifax are working to rejuvenate their population. "We would like to see these refugees spread fairly evenly across the country. We do not want to concentrate them all in three or four big cities," he said, adding that Ottawa does not "control exactly where they will go." Mr. McCallum said the government will be leasing planes from Royal Jordanian Airways to fly many of the refugees to Canada, stating the first trip could occur as early as next week.

"We want to have a certain number built up before we begin the process," Mr. McCallum said, adding the government will soon be able to process 500 cases a day at a centre in Jordan. Still, there have been concerns about whether small-town Canada can handle government-sponsored Syrian refugees, who will be the most vulnerable and traumatized newcomers. Governments are preparing an assessment checklist that can help them determine whether smaller towns have the necessary minimum services such as health, mental-health and education workers.

Chris Friesen, of the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., said that "if those key elements are not in the community," resettlement groups and governments will have to consider whether these support services can be added over time. The alternative is sending these refugees to the 36 longstanding refugee-resettlement centres across Canada. Resettlement groups say they are still waiting to be given the names of the private sponsors who will welcome 10,000 refugees in coming months, to assist them in successfully integrating the newcomers into Canadian society. "A number of these private sponsors will be doing this for the first time and it's critically important for them to have support around them ...," Mr. Friesen said.

He added that Syrians will have a challenge adapting to welfarerate housing. "You're coming from a middle-class family with a nice house in Damascus. Managing expectations may at times be challenging," Mr. Friesen said. Another issue is seeing how many refugees Ottawa plans on bringing to Canada in 2016, not only from Syria but other countries, as well. The "immigration levels" are normally released every fall, and refugee groups say they need to see overall projections to accurately plan for all the newcomers.

"The government has been consistent in promising [Syrian refugees] will be over and above pre-existing refugee targets for other regions," Mr. Friesen said.

Those numbers will soon rise. Last week, the federal government announced that employers could usher in highly skilled temporary workers such as engineers and electricians in 10 days instead of the current 12- to 14-week approval process, noting red tape will likely be reduced in processing other categories of temporary foreign workers as well. Of note, the fastest growing category of temporary foreign workers is low-skilled workers, whose numbers have grown ten-fold in just five years. These are not the seasonal fruit-and-vegetable pickers on which our nation also relies. These folks toil year-round at Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, in our abattoirs, nursing homes, and hotels; workplaces where employers say they can’t find Canadian workers willing to work at the offered wages.

four-year cap on residency for temporary foreign workers, brought into play in 2011

In Alberta, by the end of 2011, more than 58,000 people were working under temporary foreign work permits, up from about 37,000 at the end of 2007. The province can only nominate up to 5,000 of these workers to become Canadians. The vast majority of low-skilled temporary foreign workers have no avenue for permanent residency.

“If we are only allowed to offer care to someone when they are spitting up blood in the emergency room, they will most certainly have already infected others (with tuberculosis),”

The program cost $84.6 million in 2010-11 fiscal year, with approximately 96,000 people receiving at least one benefit, according to a spokesman from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. But Tyndall said the cuts will actually cost money, not save it.

the changes will create emergency room visits and hospitalizations that could have been avoided — all at a cost to the government.

In separate reforms to the refugee system, however, the government is introducing the controversial category of "designated countries of origin" countries (DCOs) deemed to be safe for a returning refugee.

Rejected claimants and asylum-seekers from DCOs will not receive any health-care coverage - unless they have an ailment deemed a risk to public health or safety (such as tuberculosis or HIV).

Paying for a private insurance plan would be difficult for most refugees; they usually have little to no income, and DCO claimants will not be al-lowed to work legally in Canada for the first 180 days.

The changes to the IFHP eliminate vision, dental, and prescription medication benefits for all refugees.

refugees will be among the two per cent who have to pay for all medicines themselves

Type 2 diabetes is more prevalent among newcomers than among the general Canadian population, and is managed with medications that can cost upward of $40 a month - a considerable expense for someone living on social assistance, as many refugees do for their first months here. Refugee claimants in the provinces with the biggest refugee populations - Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec - can't ac-cess provincial drug plans for low-income earners because they are not yet permanent residents.