Friday July 4, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated July 5 and July 7, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke. B.Sc. | Island Social Trends
A large workers union has launched a lawsuit against Health Canada over pesticide safety failures, it was announced in early June 2025.
There is no word yet as to whether Health Canada has responded to the lawsuit. Island Social Trends has requested an update from Health Canada; on July 7 Health Canada stated: “As the litigation is pending, Health Canada is unable to comment at this time.”
The complainants feel that Health Canada’s failure to enforce safety data sheet requirements exposes workers to unlawful harm.
The case is being brought by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada), represented by lawyers from Ecojustice. UFCW Canada represents more than 200,000 agricultural workers in different contexts and also advocates for non-unionized primary agricultural workers. Ecojustice is Canada’s largest environmental law charity.
Traditional territories of several First Nations including the Caldwell, the Attiwonderonk, the Anishinabewaki, the Mississauga, and the Myaamia — United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada) have launched a new legal case challenging Health Canada’s unlawful failure to protect agricultural workers by not enforcing safety data sheet requirements under the federal Pest Control Products Act (PCPA).
Without access to critical information about the chemicals they are handling, agricultural workers are unable to protect themselves from hazardous pesticides at work.
Agricultural workers face dangerous health risks on the job:
Agricultural workers face a complex array of systemic barriers to a safe, healthy workplace. Large farming operations are exempt from a wide array of standards that protect other workers from hazards. In some provinces this includes exclusion from labour legislation and key provisions in occupational health and safety legislation.
Exposure to pesticides is a serious issue for agricultural workers. Even where workers do not use pesticides, the presence of pesticides in workplaces provides a potential route of exposure. Human studies continue to show high potential exposures to pesticides and increased rates of related chronic illnesses such as cancers among populations exposed through agricultural work.
Safety data sheets:
The PCPA mandates Health Canada to ensure that pesticide registrants provide pesticide safety data sheets to workplaces. Safety data sheets follow international standards and include essential safety information on the toxic properties of chemicals, and the health conditions that may result from their use. By failing to enforce this requirement, Health Canada is putting the health of agricultural workers, especially migrant farm workers, at risk.
Enforcing the legal requirement to provide pesticide safety data sheets to employers is an important first step in ensuring that vulnerable workers’ right to know about chemical exposures on farms is actualized.
Pesticides – working conditions and food safety:
Without wearing proper personal protective equipment, Ecojustice said farm workers exposed to pesticides can experience both immediate and long-term health issues.
“The boss gives us the pesticide, tells us to fill the tanks, and sends us to spray the plants. No gloves, no masks, no protection at all, nobody showed me how to protect myself nor how to handle the pesticide. The greenhouse is packed with workers, all of us breathing in the chemical. If we complain, we are fired and deported. So we keep quiet,” said a Guatemalan agricultural worker.
“I don’t know how many times I have felt my skin burning, my head spinning, or my stomach turning until I throw up. But what can I do? This job in Canada is my only chance, my family back in Guatemala depends on me. Without it, my kids won’t go to school. The boss knows that and takes advantage of that,” the worker said in a June 9, 2025 news release.
Health impacts on consumers & economy:
None of the news release mentions the potential health impacts for consumers of the food produced in greenhouses or on farms. Consumers may be paying more attention to how long food lasts in their fridge… far longer than if fresh-picked from their own garden.
Without a reliable supply of produce to the Canadian grocery store system there would be challenges to the food security for most Canadians in urban locations. But people may not realize the health price they potentially pay for consuming food that can endure a long time in transportation and then on grocery store shelves.
UFCW Canada advocates for improved working conditions:
“Migrant agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable workers in Canada and are continuously exposed to hazardous and dangerous chemicals in the workplace,” says Shawn Haggery, National President, UFCW Canada.
“Our union has long-advocated for improved working conditions for migrant workers; our most recent report focused on the health and safety challenges faced by migrant workers, including chemical hazards. Health Canada must take action and enforce worker information requirements for pesticides,” says Shawn Haggery, National President, UFCW Canada.
“This has been going on for years, and nothing has changed,” said Derek Johnstone, special assistant to the national president of UFCW Canada, which represents more than 200,000 members working in the food industry nationwide.
Johnstone said in a national TV interview that the issue has plagued workers in Leamington for years and exists in the agriculture sector across Canada. “We are denying them something as basic, as fundamental as knowing what chemicals they’re handling,” Johnstone told CTV News.
Laura Bowman, lawyer, Ecojustice said:
“Frontline agricultural workers are highly exposed to pesticides and other toxic chemicals at work. They should have access to the same safety information that is available to workers exposed to hazardous chemicals in other contexts,” says Laura Bowman, a lawyer with Ecojustice.
“Canada has failed to implement key pesticide safety provisions for agricultural workers, who are often migrant workers. These same workers suffer from inadequate labour and immigration protections that make it even more difficult for them to protect themselves from toxic chemicals at work. Health Canada must stop adding to this discriminatory and unequal situation by failing to implement worker information requirements for pesticides,” she said in a June 9, 2025 news release.
Migrant agricultural workers at increased risk
Canada increasingly relies on migrant farm workers to grow fruits and vegetables. These workers are subjected to draconian immigration and labour rules that prevent them from protecting themselves.
In 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, concluded that migrant workers (including those in the agricultural sector) were among groups vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery within Canada.
A report from UFCW Canada emphasizes the increased and unique health and safety challenges faced by migrant workers due to their living and working conditions, lack of access to healthcare, and language barriers. Migrant farm workers have raised concerns regarding lack of access to information on chemicals used on farms and have reported acute and chronic symptoms of pesticide poisoning.
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NEWS SECTIONS: FOOD & AGRICULTURE