Community rallies to help migrant farm workers stuck in Norfolk for Christmas
Stranded far from home thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the slow wheels of bureaucracy, more than 100 migrant farm workers from Trinidad are preparing to spend Christmas in Norfolk County.
And the community is doing its part to make it a jolly holiday.
People have been so generous. There has been such a huge outpour," said Leanne Arnal, a farm worker advocate whose Waterford house quickly filled with donations of winter clothes and boots, food, gift cards, Christmas decorations and gifts for the workers.
They just started rolling in, and then businesses starting getting on board," said Arnal, who has been busy making deliveries to farms in Norfolk and neighbouring Oxford County.
Local churches, along with outreach groups like Church Out Serving and the Salvation Army in Simcoe, have also collected donations, and people in Brantford, Hamilton, Kitchener and Toronto reached out to help after hearing of the workers' situation.
At this point, Arnal said nearly every worker has had their immediate needs met.
We're at the very end," she said. Everybody's come together in a very short time to pull all this together."
Dusty Zamecnik has eight Trinidadians still living on his Langton-area berry farm because their government, worried about the spread of the virus, has not issued them travel exemptions to return.
A Hamilton woman and her father recently made the trip to deliver gift bags and home-cooked Caribbean-style meals for each of Zamecnik's workers, after first calling the farm to confirm their clothing sizes.
That's what she did for Christmas. It's amazing," Zamecnik said, calling the community's support both humbling and relieving."
Simcoe farmer Brett Schuyler said he is very grateful" for the generosity shown to the 80 Trinidadians still on his farm.
In the last two days, I probably had about 20 people contact me," Schuyler said.
He has heard from neighbours in Norfolk, as well as Trinidadians living in Toronto and Caribbean-Canadian groups who are organizing donations to try to make Christmas a little more welcoming."
Everyone has ample clothing and a ton of gifts have been dropped off," Schuyler said. We have to go buy Christmas trees for all the ornaments."
Inside one bunkhouse at Schuyler Farms, Felena Pereira and her housemates have decorated a tree with tinsel and colourful ornaments. A red poinsettia sits on the kitchen table, with twinkling lights and decorations placed around the living room adding to the festive feel.
It's not so dreary," Pereira said of the atmosphere on the farm. For me, I feel the excitement, because I like Christmas."
Pereira will spend the holiday talking with her two teenage children and the rest of her family back home through a video call. Others will wish Merry Christmas to toddlers in the care of relatives.
It will be different this year, but we just have to make the most of the situation," she said.
Arnal hopes the donations reflect a sea change in residents' attitudes toward migrant workers, who in the spring were met with suspicion as potential carriers of COVID-19.
When they first got here, the community basically shunned them. They were told, you're not welcome,'" Arnal said. It's been a hard go for them."
That suspicion has now changed to sympathy and gratitude, as expressed in handwritten Christmas cards that accompany the donations.
Where there was finger-pointing, now there's people embracing people," Arnal said.
Pereira encourages Norfolk residents to see the thousands of farm workers who spend much of the year in Canada as their neighbours.
The community itself, they need to get acquainted with farm workers," she said.
We have lives. We come and work hard to provide for the family back home. My thought is, the public should know who migrant farm workers are and interact with us."
Backdrop of uncertainty
These efforts to make the holidays a little cheerier are taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty for farm workers, whose work permits are set to expire on Dec. 15.
A few workers have been able to fly back to Trinidad in recent days, but farmers say the process by which travel exemptions are granted remains a mystery.
Service Canada staff are working to extend the workers' permits so they can receive Employment Insurance benefits over the holidays and into the new year.
Some of these guys have been paying into (Employment Insurance) for 12, 13 years. It's their right to have access to it," Zamecnik said.
In the meantime, workers prepare for a Canadian Christmas they did not expect, with help from a community trying to keep their spirits bright.
But it's only temporary," Zamecnik said. Only home can fix this."
J.P. Antonacci's reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about the regions of Haldimand and Norfolk.