Podcasts Culture Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA) Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Created Additional Issues for Canadas Temporary Foreign Workers?

Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Created Additional Issues for Canadas Temporary Foreign Workers?

Published: May 14, 2020, midnight

b'The COVID-19 pandemic has become a public health emergency. Uninsured individuals in Alberta and Canada are often denied access to health care and can face huge costs to get treatment. There are concerns that these barriers to health care already have had public health implications in the context of COVID-19. \\n\\nUninsured persons can include newly-landed permanent residents, temporary foreign workers (TFW\\u2019s), international students and undocumented residents. COVID-19 assessment centers and related care should arguably be accessible to all people, regardless of immigration status during a pandemic such as COVID-19. \\n\\nFurthermore, TFW\\u2019s often work in essential services such as agriculture and health care related jobs. As witnessed at the Cargill Beef Packing plant near High River, safe working and housing conditions were not prioritized and early warning signs were ignored causing a massive COVID-19 outbreak and plant closure.\\n\\nThe speaker will explain his advocacy role in bringing these and many other issues facing TFW\\u2019s and others to the attention of government, corporations and employers, while arguing that it should not take a serious pandemic or health emergency to implement safe working conditions for any and all employees. \\n\\nSpeakers: Marco Luciano \\n\\nMarco is the current Director of Migrante Alberta. He was a student activist and a union organizer and educator before he moved to Alberta in 2013. He was also a co-founder the Canada-wide alliance Migrante Canada\\n\\nDate and time: Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 10 am\\n\\nYouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/bqvn33l1IxE\\n\\nIn order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you\\u2019ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the \\u201csign in\\u201d button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don\\u2019t, click \\u201cCreate Account\\u201d and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming.'