{"id":4628,"date":"2021-04-26T09:01:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/28april.org\/?p=4628"},"modified":"2021-04-26T09:01:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:01:05","slug":"canada-tamil-and-chinese-workers-networks-aim-to-pause-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/28april.org\/?p=4628","title":{"rendered":"Canada: Tamil and Chinese workers’ networks aim to ‘pause’ Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year of COVID-19, a\u00a0National Day of Mourning<\/a>\u00a0for workers who died or were injured on the job isn\u2019t enough for some labour activists in Greater Toronto.<\/p>\n

They want a whole week, from Sunday, April 25, to Saturday, May 1, declared a \u201cweek of pause\u201d in Ontario.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no accurate count of everyone \u2014 farm labourers, Amazon associates, personal support workers, nurses, bus drivers, cleaners, restaurant servers \u2014 who lost their lives or suffered over the pandemic after catching the virus at work, but it dwarfs tolls commemorated during past Days of Mourning in Ontario.<\/p>\n

It was the\u00a0Tamil Workers Network<\/a>, volunteers working with the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, which first proposed going beyond the Day of Mourning on April 28 to \u201cmake Ontario pause, reflect on the power of its workers and the respect they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Huang, representing the labour council\u2019s\u00a0Chinese Workers Network<\/a>, called the Tamil workers\u2019 letter timely. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole bunch of things (in it) we wholeheartedly agree with,\u201d said Huang, who said her group will likely write its own open letter to the province asking for similar things. I think workers need to speak out,\u201d said Huang, who said besides the virus, many workers have had to deal during the past year at work with \u201ca skin pandemic\u201d of energy-sapping racism that is mentally and emotionally taxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, the injuries we bear are not just physical\u201d but mental or emotional, she said.<\/p>\n

Scarborough Mirror.
\nhttps:\/\/www.toronto.com\/news-story\/10380563-tamil-and-chinese-workers-networks-hope-to-pause-ontario-from-april-25-to-may-1\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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