Harvesting Freedom
by
This book begins with some powerful identities that Gabriel describes for us. The preface to the book contextualizes Gabriel's beginnings at a high level, and moves into his journey from St. Lucia to Canada. It also dives into some of the history behind his circumstances, and how he and Edward Dunsworth came to know each other.
The first chapter introduces Gabriel’s arrival in Canada from St. Lucia through the SAWP. While he was nervous, he was actually quite hopeful about the opportunity in Canada since both Canada as the country and the SAWP had a great reputation in St. Lucia. However, his actual experience was rather disorienting. No one had warned him of Canadian winter, so he and other migrant workers did not have appropriate clothing; they were also dropped off at the wrong farm and had to spend a freezing January night without heat. This is when his perception of the country began to shift.
Chapters 2 and 3 weave together Gabriel’s personal/family history with the broader colonial history of St. Lucia. He grew up in the agricultural Mabouya Valley, where Creole was commonly spoken, though English dominated schools and cities due to British colonial influence. As the second youngest of nine, Gabriel was able to remain in school, unlike his older siblings who had to support their mother after their parents separated. That said, growing up on a country side, all children were expected to participate in some chores, such as fetching water or wood. Many in his community also gardened and farmed on public land, often through environmentally damaging methods like clear-cutting. Gabriel connects this to the legacy of slavery and colonialism, where colonizers kept the land when the country was liberated and people in St. Lucia were forced to work with what remained.
Chapters 4 and 5 speak about Gabriel's experience with education and some of his early work as a teacher. He charts his time at the different schools, starting at the "infant school" in Derniere Riviere, then to La Ressource Primary School, Dennery Junior Secondary School, and finally to Castries Comprehensive Secondary School. Gabriel notes how the CIDA Caribbean aid program was responsible for funding the building of the school. At CCSS Gabriel focuses on Agriculture and History. After graduating, Gabriel speaks to his time as a teacher, but also notes the changing economy from sugar cane to bananas and the ripples that has on students who come from farming communities.
Gabriel moves to Guyana to attend the Guyana School of Agriculture. The country’s economic struggles are clear, and Gabriel finds the quality of the education there to be disappointing. Despite this, he excels in his classes, even tutoring his classmates to help them succeed. In Guyana, he also becomes aware of the “two faces of Canada”: on the one hand, Canada funds scholarships for five of Gabriel’s classmates through the Canadian international development agency; on the other hand, the negligence of a Canadian gold mining company in the area leads to mercury and cyanide leeching into the waterways, devastating plants, animals, and Indigenous communities.
Back in St. Lucia, Gabriel works multiple jobs and holds many volunteer roles in the community. In his executive roles in many community and professional associations, Gabriel becomes “politicized” as he sees the many structural inequities in his community and in the world at large. Gabriel has two children with his significant other, Diana, though the couple eventually separates. Gabriel struggles to support the family financially. Family is important to Gabriel, and he says: “Out of the many problems migrant workers face, being separated from family is the most crushing” (p. 42).
Gabriel establishes five lines of self-employment: growing produce for the UK market in a small greenhouse; beekeeping; convenience store sales; being a middleman between farmers and distributors, and supplying farmers with fertilizer and other products. At first, business is booming, but soon disease and pests sweep through the crops, causing Gabriel’s businesses to take a hit. Further, the World Trade Organization ends the Caribbean banana industry’s preferential access to European markets after the U.S. claimed these policies violated the principles of free trade. Europe once prioritized their former colonies’ bananas, but the new policies give U.S.-owned companies in Latin America an advantage.
Hurricane Tomas sweeps through St. Lucia, causing extensive flooding and ripping up crops and buildings. Gabriel’s businesses are irrevocably damaged, along with the St. Lucian economy. This economic distress leads to his decision to apply to be a farm worker in Canada. He reflects, “It is developed countries like Canada that have done the most to create the problem of climate change, which results in more frequent and severe hurricanes and storms. But it is developing countries that are paying a higher price for these 'natural' disasters. And countries like Canada can even benefit from the fallout of these disasters, for example, by receiving climate migrants who are the backbone of their food production system" (p. 52).
With little options for supporting his family, Gabriel turns to the Canadian farm program. It’s a competitive process, but Gabriel is one of the few chosen for the program. Given his desperation for work, he succumbs to the pressure to sign paperwork without having the chance to read it thoroughly. Gabriel and the other farm workers are given very little information on their life and work in Canada; they will only later find out how unprepared and uninformed they were.
Chapter 11 begins Gabriel's time working in the greenhouse in Leamington, Ontario. He speaks about many of the jobs he was responsible for while harvesting tomatoes, noting the shocking size of the operation. Gabriel also notes how challenging the labour practices at the farm were, as farm workers in Ontario are exempt from things like rest periods, eating periods, or overtime pay. Similarly, almost every task performed by workers was timed to ensure a fast pace throughout the long days. The chapter closes with a short description of his interactions with his direct supervisor, who he refers to as Carlos and describes as approachable, but tough. He ends this chapter by noting how "The element of fear is built into the SAWP and serves as a powerful tool for employers. A populace in fear cannot fight back" (71).
Chapter 12 details the working conditions and hours of work on the farm, how migrant workers coped with such conditions, and the beginnings of Gabriel's determination to resist these practices in his advocacy. Gabriel describes the variable piece rate system as a shifting goalpost that prompted competition and pitted migrant workers against each other. He also provides examples where labor was expected to be performed under high-risk conditions without safety precautions, resulting in workers being injured, such as the use of scissor carts without appropriate harnesses.
In Chapter 13, Gabriel describes the cramped living conditions of the migrant workers in the bunkhouse, facilities that were incredibly limited given how many workers lived there. Though he struggled with these living conditions, he also describes the community he found among the other migrant workers, in particular a group of people from St. Lucia who everyone called One Love. Gabriel ends the chapter by making connections between how the community in the bunkhouse and his family, including his Aunty Lena, supported his wellbeing and helped "plant the seeds" inspiring his activism.
Gabriel expresses how hard it is to be separated from his children as they grow up. Communication is challenging and very expensive while he is in Canada, and his children are suffering academically in his absence. Despite having come to Canada to improve his children's lives and get them out of a cycle of poverty, Gabriel feels the SAWP actually traps him deeper in that cycle, making him reliant on returning to Canada every year to work, while having little to send back home.
Gabriel sometimes feels he is treated like a tourist when he returns home, since he spends the majority of his time away from St. Lucia. Like most migrant workers, Gabriel's community back home expects him to bring them gifts back from Canada. While this expectation causes him some stress, he also gets joy from giving people gifts that they love.
Many SAWP workers are functionally illiterate, and Gabriel is able to help them with paperwork and communication. As he learns more about the program, he realizes that the lack of education among the workers is by design, since it keeps the power in the hands of the employers. The precarity of the workers' situations keeps them compliant and submissive.
Socializing with other migrant workers helps Gabriel cope with the stress of his long hours. Gabriel also starts to build community outside of the bunk. Despite some deeply-held reservations about Christianity, Gabriel starts attending Leamington Gospel Hall, where he meets many new friends and finds opportunities to further build community. He also meets and befriends Denis, who he foreshadows will play a significant role in his life.
Gabriel describes several incidents within the town of Leamington of racism and discrimination, and more broadly, he illustrates how each level of government contributes to injustice toward migrant workers. One example he describes showcases racism in the justice system: the Ontario Provincial Police carried out a DNA sweep of 96 Black migrant farm workers after a report of sexual assault. In municipal government, Gabriel describes how the Leamington Business Improvement Area lobbied for bylaws to prevent loitering and similarly Kingsville passed bylaws aiming to "keep migrant workers out of its downtown" (p. 114). In addition, Gabriel points to how the racism present at workplaces and how our society views "illegal immigrants" as criminals all further the oppression and discrimination migrant workers face in Canada.
Shortly before Gabriel first arrives in Canada, a van carrying poultry farm workers crashed on its way back to the bunks, killing 11 people. This news unnerves him and when he is invited to attend a vigil, he accepts. At the vigil, he hears about others' experiences of poor conditions in SAWP and learns of Justicia 4 Migrant Workers, an organization that advocates for the rights of migrant workers. As Gabriel becomes more involved with J4MW, he learns more about Canada's history and the deep injustices in the way Canada's economy relies on temporary and precariously employed foreign workers.
In this chapter, Gabriel outlines the twenty injustices he observed in Canada, highlighting how SAWP workers are dehumanized and exploited. These workers do not have the genuine right to refuse the work or employer assigned to them, as they constantly face the threat of deportation and are excluded from the labour rights afforded to Canadian workers. These injustices are perpetuated at every level of the Canadian government, from local to federal. To address them, Gabriel argues that all migrant workers should be granted permanent immigration status upon arrival in Canada.
In 2014, Gabriel decided to pursue permanent residency despite the many issues he observed in Canada. Since it is nearly impossible for SAWP workers to obtain permanent status, Gabriel, with the support of immigration lawyers Maria Fernandes and Karin Baqi, had to apply for his PR on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. After submitting his application, Gabriel was unable to leave Canada, as he did not know when his PR interview would take place. Gabriel was also not allowed to work and was ineligible for health insurance until the initial stage of his application was processed, which took nine months. Gabriel finally received his permanent residency in December 2017, 30 months after he submitted his application.
Gabriel provides a description of his work with Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) and their central demand: permanent status upon arrival. He speaks about his conversations with hundreds of migrant workers and their fear and precarity, and his public speaking engagements and his fear that what he said might impact his permanent residency application. Gabriel goes on to discuss the development of his public speaking style and the reception of his talks.
In this chapter, Gabriel recounts his experience of testifying before the HUMA Committee of the House of Commons along with another former migrant worker, Gina Bahiwal. He provides summarized statements from both his own and Gina’s testimony and commented that although some of what they said was included in the report, the report’s recommendations were only band-aid solutions. Gabriel has since worked short-term contracts that were a result of the report recommendations and funding created to educate migrant farm workers about their rights.
This chapter provided a summary of the Harvesting Freedom Caravan tour in October 2016, which travelled from Leamington to Windsor to Ottawa with many stops and direct actions on the way. Gabriel describes some of the rallies and protests, some of which disrupted industrial farming processes like the one at the food distribution centre in Toronto and the Niagara Wine & Grape Festival parade. He discusses the allyship and solidarity with unions, the Six Nations, and one notable NDP MP, Niki Ashton. Gabriel credits the experience of this caravan tour for shaping him into the person he is today.
Gabriel tells the story in this last chapter of bringing his children, Gania and Christi, to join him in Canada, of his marriage to his long-time friend Sharna back in St. Lucia, and the birth of his grandson Lorenzo. He shares his joy of having his loved ones around him, and his hopes for his own future and that of his children.
During the covid-19 pandemic, despite being labelled as essential/front-line workers, migrant workers were treated terribly unlike others that fell under this category. "In Ontario in 2020, migrant farm workers were ten times more likely to get COVID than a member of the general public" (p.165). The epilogue goes into details about worker conditions throughout the pandemic from a transcripted conversation between Gabriel and Edward for Syndemic Magazine.
This site is maintained by the librarians of Okanagan College Library.
If you wish to comment on an individual page, please contact that page's author.
If you have a question or comment about Okanagan College Library's LibGuides site as a whole, please contact the site administrator.