TORONTO \u2014 A migrant farm worker\u2019s death on a road in Ontario\u2019s Niagara Region is the latest in a long list of similar tragedies, advocates say as they call for urgent reforms to Canada\u2019s seasonal worker program, from safer rural roads to the end of work permits that tie labourers to a single employer.<\/p>\n
Sinhue Garcia, 39, was killed in an alleged hit-and-run crash the night of June 26 while cycling home from the farm where he worked near Niagara-on-the-Lake. A 22-year-old man was later arrested and charged with impaired driving and leaving the scene of a fatal crash.<\/p>\n
The advocacy group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change said Garcia had returned to the region for a few seasons while his wife and two daughters remained in Mexico, and his death is not an isolated tragedy. <\/p>\n
Dozens of community activists rallied outside the Ontario Ministry of Labour office in downtown Toronto on Friday, demanding action on working conditions for migrant farm workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to fight for the families who are grieving and we\u2019re here to demand a future where no worker dies in silence,\u201d Elizabeth Ha, an adviser to the equity unit of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said in a speech at the demonstration. <\/p>\n
Rally organizers said it\u2019s believed that eight migrant agricultural workers have died in the province in recent weeks, due to varying causes. In one case, two farm workers died in a vehicle crash. <\/p>\n
\u201cEight deaths, eight families grieving, eight families shattered, eight workers who came here to build a better life,\u201d Ha said at the rally. <\/p>\n
Advocates say Garcia\u2019s death in the Niagara area is the latest in a string of incidents stretching back years, in a region where Canada\u2019s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program \u2014 an arrangement between Canada and Mexico, and Canada and Caribbean countries, that allows those countries\u2019 federal governments to recruit migrants to work here \u2014 has operated for six decades.<\/p>\n
Syed Hussan, co-executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said those who come to Canada under the program don\u2019t typically have access to a car, and find themselves in areas with no public transit. Instead, they get around by bike or on foot, on roads that were never built for that kind of traffic, he said.<\/p>\n
At least seven migrant workers have died or been seriously injured in the Niagara Region since 2019, Hussan said. He blamed the deaths on decades of neglected rural infrastructure, including unlit roads, nonexistent bike lanes and inadequate transit options, built up around a program he considers \u201cindentured servitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause people work such long hours, because sometimes they don\u2019t even have laundry at their homes, they\u2019re forced to travel at night because that\u2019s the only time. On unlit streets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Farm workers who speak up about their situation risk losing everything at once: their job, their employer-controlled housing and their ability to work anywhere else in the country, Hussan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not allowed to work for anyone else in the country. That means immediately you\u2019re homeless, and you have no ability to earn a living or live anywhere. You can\u2019t work. You\u2019re not going to get access to social services and benefits. You maybe don\u2019t speak the language. What are you going to do?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that situation, people simply don\u2019t speak up, no matter what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Ramsaroop, co-director of the Migrant Farm Worker Legal Clinic at the University of Windsor and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said he and other advocates have been calling for coroner\u2019s inquests into deaths tied to the occupation, including cycling deaths, for decades. Coroner\u2019s inquests are a form of public hearing held to shed light on the circumstances of a death, and jurors often make recommendations meant to prevent similar deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoads are a component of a large puzzle, of a program, of an industry, of a labour system or labour regime that\u2019s built for business,\u201d Ramsaroop said. \u201cThe tied work permits, the employer-driven nature of the program, deny workers labour and social mobility.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Canadian Press has reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Labour for comment.<\/p>\n
The federal government has said that it\u2019s committed to ensuring the health and safety of temporary foreign workers in Canada and is open to recommendations for better worker protections. <\/p>\n
Alongside demands for the provincial and federal governments, the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is focusing its policy priorities on the municipal level ahead of the October election. <\/p>\n
After Garcia\u2019s death, the group started a petition calling for safe transportation options and roads, emergency supports for families and a simpler path to permanent residency for workers, as well as provincial action on housing standards, including laundry facilities that would cut down on workers biking at night.<\/p>\n
The municipality of Niagara-on-the-Lake says it has not received the petition, but that it continues to prioritize initiatives that improve safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout this council term, we have continued to invest in initiatives that improve safety across both our rural and urban road network, including the implementation of reduced speed limits in many areas as part of our broader road safety efforts,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
Monique Kasonga, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n
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