Ontario Farm Owner Faces Charges Related to 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak Involving Migrant Workers | The Canadian News

The Ontario Ministry of Labor (MOL) has brought charges against a Norfolk County, Ontario farm in connection with an outbreak in the spring of 2020 that saw a man from Mexico die after contracting COVID-19.

The provincial agency told Global News that 20 charges have been brought under the Ontario Reopening Act (ROA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OHSA) against Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. and owner Scott Biddle.

The filing alleges that the employer did not “take all reasonable precautions” under both laws to protect workers who wear masks and barriers and maintain physical distancing at the Vittoria Road facility on dates between late June and early July 2020. .

The company faces 10 charges while Biddle faces the other 10.

Cases reached about 200 in mid-June 2020 during the outbreak, and migrant worker Juan López Chaparro, 55, died after working on the farm.

The father of four from Mexico had come to Canada for work since 2010.

An estimated 20,000 migrant workers come to Ontario each year to work on farms and greenhouses, according to BDO Canada immigration services.

Last year, workers had to isolate themselves for 14 days upon arriving in Canada amid the height of the pandemic.

Canada’s largest advocacy group for migrant workers, the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, pleaded with the federal government and the province of Ontario to reverse a decision that allowed COVID-19 positive and asymptomatic farm workers to continue working.

In late June 2020, the province had seen three migrant farm workers from Mexico die after being infected with the virus; the other two worked in Windsor-Essex.

The ministry’s allegations also claim that in at least one case, the defendant did not provide instructions on how to cover a worker’s face and did not provide reasonable hand hygiene to protect against the virus.

Other claims include a lack of instruction on the need for hand hygiene, a lack of protection of high-contact surfaces and equipment, a lack of exclusion of those at high risk of transmitting COVID-19 from work areas, lack of instruction in self-management and failure to isolate symptomatic workers from others.

Global News contacted Scotlynn Farms and Scott Biddle for comment. No response has yet been given as of Tuesday afternoon.

The MOL said penalties under the OHSA range from jail sentences of up to one year and fines of up to $ 1.5 million.

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