Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
THE MINISTRY of Labour and Social Security will not be supporting Canadian human rights group, Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) in putting pressure on the chief coroner of Ontario to grant a coroner's inquest into the death of a Jamaican farm worker who was killed while on duty in August 2002.
Ned Livingston Peart, a 39-year-old man from May Pen, Clarendon, was killed while working at the Vilaca Tobacco Farm in Canada when he was crushed to death.
"There is nothing for us to pursue," said Barrington Bailey, senior director of manpower services in the ministry. He explained that the ministry was satisfied with the police report, which said the death of the farm worker was due to an accident.
Only this week, Barry McLellan, chief coroner of Ontario, agreed with the ministry's position. In his ruling, he said that Mr. Peart's death was a result of negligence, as he did not observe training instructions.
In reaction to the ruling, Chris Ramsaroop, orgnaiser of the Canadian-based human rights group said "This is a slap in the face to the family and a slap in the face to migrant workers and to justice overall."
Mr. Ramsaroop argued that migrant workers were not properly trained in safety procedures on Canada's agricultural farms and that workers are subject to exploitative working and living conditions while in Canada, and are not protected by basic health and safety legislation. These workers, he said, do not have basic rights that workers in other industries enjoy.
He said that the group would be trying to have the ruling overturned.
"We will be putting the pressure on the Provincial Government of Ontario and make an appeal that migrant farmers are treated with dignity," he told The Gleaner.
Responding to allegations made by Mr. Ramsaroop that farm workers were operating in inhumane conditions and often time complained of these conditions, Mr. Bailey said, "The ministry has not been informed by any worker of such conditions."
He added that the ministry each year visits the farms to scrutinise the working conditions and in recent times had received complaints from any of the workers.
Addressing the allegation that workers were not trained in health and safety procedures on these farms, Mr. Bailey said that only trained workers are sent to farms that require specialty skills.
