Hampstead Vigil Press Release: Please spread widely
Remembering the Dead, Standing up for the Living: March and Vigil to
Commemorate the Hampstead Accident
WHO: Migrant workers, community allies and Justicia for
Migrant Workers (J4MW)
WHAT: Vigil and March to Commemorate the Hampstead accident
DATE: Sunday July 22, 2012
TIME AND PLACE:
Ø Vigil - 12:00pm at the site of accident (Intersection of 47
Line and County Road 107 in Hampstead, Ont
Ø Reception- 2:00pm Working Centre Café (43 Queen Street South)
in Kitchener, ON
For Immediate Release
(Kitchener, Ontario). Six months have passed since the tragic accident
that killed eleven people near Hampstead, Ontario. Amongst the dead
were nine migrant chicken catchers from Peru and two Canadians. Three
other migrant workers were seriously injured. The impact of this
tragedy has been felt across the hemisphere as families struggle to
cope in the wake of this accident.
To commemorate the Hampstead accident, migrant workers, community
allies and Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) are organizing a vigil
on Sunday July 22nd. The vigil will take place at noon at the site of
the accident in Hampstead, Ontario. There will be a reception at the
Working Centre Cafe in Kitchener, Ontario (after the vigil).
Working with the survivors of the accident, the vigil is being
organized to raise awareness of the thousands of migrant workers who
have been injured, or become sick while working in Canada.
Two of the survivors of the crash, Javier and Juan, wish to break the
invisibility not only of their situation but to raise the profile of
the conditions faced by migrant workers across Canada. Their message
is clear: Federal and Provincial laws designed to protect migrant
workers don’t work! Fundamental steps need to be taken to ensure that
migrant workers are treated with respect and dignity.
Our demands are as follows:
· Safe working conditions
· Status upon arrival
· No fees for work
· Equal access to all entitlements
· Modernize labour laws to reflect the realities of migrant workers
· No repatriations and deportations
“Six months have passed since this preventable tragedy occurred. Yet
there has been no proactive measures from either the Federal or
Provincial governments to prevent accidents like this from happening
again,” says Tanya Ferguson, an organizer with Justicia for Migrant
Workers (J4MW). “Lives are at stake but our governments continually
disregard their responsibility to act.”
Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) is a volunteer run political
non-profit collective comprised of activists from diverse walks of
life (including labour activists, educators, researchers, students and
youth of colour) based in Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada. We are engaged in this work alongside our personal
commitments and numerous social justice struggles.
For More Information please contact:
Jessica Ponting 647 401 9611
Chris Ramsaroop at 647 834 4932
e-mail:j4mw.on@gmail.com
web: justicia4migrantworkers.org
or you can follow us on
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/justice4mw
tumblr:http://j4mw.tumblr.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/j4mw
