The group Justice for Migrant Workers is applauding the half-a-billion class-action lawsuit filed against the federal government.
The class-action suit accuses the government of violating the charter rights of temporary foreign workers by not protecting their health and safety and tying their work Visas to a specific employer.
"This is an important, a significant action that has been undertaken and definitely this is something that people are going to be talking about for a very long time," said Chris Ramsaroop with Justice for Migrant Workers.
Ramsaroop hopes the lawsuit will lead to changes in the temporary foreign workers program that will allow people to apply for permanent residency, change jobs while in Canada, and have access to employment insurance.
The action states that European workers were never vulnerable to the same abuses because their work permits were not tied to specific companies.
"I think we as a society really need to question structures and see how racism intersects with structures. how power and racism intersect with one another and we have to question why do not workers from the Caribbean and Mexico have the same rights as other generations of workers that came before them," said Ramsaroop.
-with files from Adelle Loiselle
