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From a small rural village in Jamaica to the negotiating tables of Canada’s labour movement, A Labour of Love traces the extraordinary journey of Herman Stewart, a community builder, labour activist, and relentless advocate for justice.This deeply personal memoir captures the heart of a man who arrived in Canada with modest beginnings and rose to become a respected leader in the Jamaican Canadian community and the broader labour movement. Through vivid storytelling, Stewart recounts his early life in Jamaica, the cultural challenges of immigration, and his unyielding commitment to workers’ rights and social justice.With wisdom, humour, and humility, Stewart sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of a generation that paved the way for change in Canadian society. His story is not only a tribute to activism and perseverance but also a call to action for future generations to carry forward the fight for equity and inclusion.This is more than a memoir; it’s a legacy of purpose, courage, and hope. --Publisher's description
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Throughout the eighteenth century, the French and British empires mobilized thousands of labourers in Canada through a system of mandatory labour known as “corvée.” This social arrangement was rooted in the feudal obligations of French peasants to landowners. Under the French regime, corvée was a custom, an obligation, and a form of obedience, a “local affair” embedded in an agricultural way of life that retainined a sense of reciprocity with mechanisms to discourage exploitation. However, with the British conquest of Quebec in 1763, and, later, the American Revolution, the corvée system assumed new dimensions. The British recognized the need for labour power in an underpopulated region and coopted the corvée customs for their own imperial ends. Though British officials retained some French statutes, they enacted new laws mobilizing the male inhabitants of New France to work in state enterprises (such as iron mining and logging), with Labourers holding little to no input into how the colonial state viewed their well-being. Leaning heavily on corvée as a form of conscription, the British army’s surging demand for workers in Quebec precipitated wide-spread protests. This crisis forced the royally appointed governor Frederick Haldimand to ratify a new provincial code regulating the use of corvée. Workers of War and Empire from New France to British America, 1688-1783 chronicles the transformation of the corvée system over a century, positioning French Canadian workers at the center of the narrative. -- Publisher's description
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This book is an invitation to trouble the mobilization of “anti-Asian hate” in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing together activists, organizers, academic, and artists, this book explores the historical and contemporary conditions that make theorizing “Asian Canadian” feasible. Grounded in a transnational queer and feminist lens, this book also aims to envision possible futures and solidarities. Ultimately, this collection is concerned with moments and places of tensions, confrontations, relations, and solidarity. We offer stories of insurgent encounters as people who identify as “Asian” navigate and implicate settler colonial nation-state to make new dreams, histories and intimacies. -- Publisher's description
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Migrant Work by Another Name explores the complexities of Canada's evolving international migration and employment policy landscape. It critically examines the shift towards “mobility” programs under the recently inaugurated International Mobility Program (IMP). This shift occurs alongside the contraction of certain streams within Canada’s long-standing Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The book investigates the implications of policy changes, influenced at once by public outcry over migrant worker exploitation and persistent demands for labour in the face of qualitative labour shortages in high-income countries like Canada. Grounded in a decolonial feminist political economy approach, Leah F. Vosko employs a mixed methods analysis to contrast the narrative of “mobility” with the persistent realities of precarity among transnational workers. The book features in-depth case studies of the three largest IMP subprograms – Working Holiday, Post-Graduation, and Spousal Work Permit programs – revealing how these initiatives, despite being touted as promoting mobility, provide for temporary migrant work by another name and perpetuate distinct forms of precarity. This critical perspective challenges the notion of progress in contemporary migration policies, shedding light on the ongoing challenges faced by transnational workers in Canada. -- Publisher's description