Finding humans in the workers

A Fight for Justice: The Compelling Story of Temporary Foreign Workers & Human Rights
by Joe Barrett

Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2026
$26.95 / 9781553807391

Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski

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In 2026 alone literally hundreds of cases of human rights abuses were recorded worldwide. In such a world, a story about mistreatment of immigrant workers might be expected. Less expected—at least for many readers—is that a story of stark labour abuse should take place not just in Canada, but in Vancouver, and, no less, right in the belly of the iconic Canada Line construction.

More to the point, it might be expected that a book documenting a situation in 2006-7 that lead to a Human Rights Tribunal would follow a straightforward feel-good, script—injustice exposed, wrongs righted.  How could it not?  Exactly how not Joe Barrett exposes in gripping detail in A Fight for Justice. Starting his story in 2006, the author illuminates not just a pivotal moment in the fight for rights for temporary foreign workers in Canada, but also the daunting complexities of the whole process.

Barrett could hardly have been better positioned to document this story.  Fluent in Spanish—thanks, in part, from his years in Latin America—he worked as a researcher for the British Columbia Building and Construction Trade Council and, crucially, became a member of an organizing team for the Construction and Specialized Workers’ Union (now LiUNA local 1611). While he modestly writes little about himself in the main narrative, in the Appendix of characters he identifies what is probably his most salient role—“a trusted friend of the Latin American Workers.”  And for good reason.

The story of the mistreated tunnel workers may sound familiar.  In rough outline, it begins with an Italian tunnelling company, SELI, tasked with a major project in Vancouver.  Finding no Canadians responding to their ads, the company recruited experienced workers from Latin America, attracting them with comparatively high payment and side benefits such as accommodation. As it turned out, the wages, though higher than what they were used to, were a small fraction of Canadian wages for similar work—and significantly lower than those of Europeans subsequently hired by the same company.

Given the starkness of the facts, readers might expect a clear sequence of events, starting with unionization, followed by negotiations, perhaps a strike vote, and ending with an equitable settlement. “What actually happened was very, very different.”

Two features of Barrett’s story, are particularly striking. First is the almost unimaginable labyrinth of manoeuvres, legalities, and interventions, all involving many dozens of people in many different roles. Second is Barrett’s tone. Throughout he (nearly) always preserves a measured, objective voice. Each of the vast tangle of details he treats with steady precision (documented in extensive end notes).  At one setback, for example, rather than inveighing against those who have decided against the workers’ case, he simply writes: “Believing natural justice had been denied…the union applied for reconsideration….” Surprisingly, perhaps, rather than bleeding the book of forward drive, this sense of careful documentation makes the thickets of details all the more gripping—even mesmerizing.

In addition, the author guides his readers through the maze by organizing the content into short sections with headings that are not just informative, but often provocative—and given additional impact by the book designer’s use of large, ragged block letters. Further, he tames the otherwise mind-boggling number of initialisms and players, by organizing them into lists.  Thus, he separates the characters into workers, tunnelling company managers and, finally, Canadian Union, Judiciary, Administrative Staff, and Community workers.

A more impactful tactic, though, and almost at the opposite end of the spectrum, is Barrett’s sensitive portrayal of the human element. It is not incidental that he opens the book with a vivid description of a few minutes of technical tunnel work—performed not by an anonymous worker but by a man with a name and an individual story: “‘Machaca’…got ready to place the next segment beam….”  Shortly afterwards, the author sketches the impoverished lives amongst a cast of Costa Ricans, and, later rounds out their portraits.  Of “Cabra,” for example, he writes: “The twenty-eight-year-old was always cheerful, full of good humour and welcoming.  He was smart, tall and handsome.”  “Rompi,” in contrast, speaks “with a gruff deep baritone,” his name aptly translated as “the Breaker.”

Never treating them as a homogenous group, the author shows how the mosaic of workers was reflected in a whole array of attitudes—towards the union, the possibility of a strike, the company’s offers and threats, even towards their roles. In fact, as he shows, the differences amongst the Costa Ricans, Ecuadorians, and Venezuelans constitute one of the most intricate gnarls of the story. 

Thus moved to document the humanity behind the story, Barrett repeatedly emphasizes the men’s emotions, especially those who are homesick in spite of occasional visits to their families. Affectingly, he reports how he himself and other union workers took the workers on outings, provided English lessons, and helped with medical situations (even, when necessary, at their own expense). The biggest strain for many of the workers, as the author shows, though, was the confusing tugs and pushes of the legalities, loyalties, and fears crackling through the conflict between the union and SELI. During the climactic tribunal, for example, he writes of one emotionally depleted worker: “When Tony came into the waiting room his face showed the strain of testifying and cross-examination….he was exhausted.”

Further to build a sense of immediacy, the author knows how and when to create a sense of “here and now.” Thus, occasionally (but only occasionally) he describes the setting of a key incident that is about to unfold: “Vancouver was socked in with grey clouds…. At the bottom of a huge construction pit on lower Granville Street between Hastings and Cordova, the massive TBM [tunnel boring machine] boring wheel churned through thick grey clay and muck into daylight….”  Additionally, he knows when to seed the text with direct quotations in order to deepen authenticity: a worker named Fernando describes workers’ lives resulting from sending home even their minimal wages: “They can’t afford to have a cup of coffee…they had to eat a hamburger between three of them.”

More strikingly, though, while keeping his own tone generally level, Barrett reports the emotionally fraught words of others, such as union lawyer’s blunt words—“This is idiocy”—or a worker’s outraged rebuttal—“That’s a lie…We were the ones who did the project in Costa Rica.”

The main pulse of the book, though, is what Barrett calls “moral outrage,” driven at first by the egregious behaviour of the tunnelling company.  Take the initial contracts. According to the Costa Ricans, not only were the contracts written in (incomprehensible) English, but they were set up to be signed only on the back page. Subsequent evidence indicated that the company, later trying to cover up any accusations of abuse, insisted that the contracts were, in fact, for twice the amount the Costa Ricans claimed. It took RCMP forensic teams examining the staple holes to provide evidence of tampering.

Company tactics to “stack” the list of eligible unionizing and strike voters with managerial names, on the one hand, were echoed, on the other, by overt threats of losing jobs: “‘They wanted to scare us,’ Tony said. ‘They told us not to be fools.’” Perhaps most unsettling were the attempts of one company representative to dismantle the value of each and every Costa Rican, one by one naming them, and claiming their inexperience and weaknesses. Outraged, the workers point out that not only had they actually been performing skilled tasks well before the Europeans arrived, but also taught them some of their skills.

It would be misleading, however, to see the book as just an exposé of the nefarious doings of a foreign company. On the contrary, much of the book’s suspense churns through the sequence of multiple and extensive British Columbian hearings and tribunals. The sequence of confrontations adjudicated by the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, the Supreme Court, and ultimately the Human Rights Tribunal propel real narrative suspense.

Rather than treating these as anonymous bodies, Barrett names names. The reader becomes intensely familiar with key players arguing positions—and dealing out judgements. At one point, for example, he writes, “Blakely [a union lawyer] now claimed that the Labour Relations Board itself was biased….” His claim is supported by the fact “the judicial review by the BC Supreme Court quashed both the Topalian [Vice Chair of the LRB] and LRB Reconsideration Panel decisions….”  According to another judge, Topalian’s conclusions “show that he determined the merit of the Union’s complaint on the first day of the hearing before all the evidence was tendered….”

Of all the names in the book, though, the two which Barrett most highlights in the concluding Human Rights Tribunal are two sparring partners: in the company’s corner is Peter Gall, legal counsel for SELI. In the union’s corner is Charles Gordon (who initially offered his services pro bono). The arguments, testimonies, and tactics echo the most charged Hollywood court case: “MacNaughton [a panel member] broke up the sparring like a referee at a boxing match.”

What makes the tribunal perhaps the most emotionally charged part of the book is the repeated emphasis on systemic prejudice against workers of marginalized skin colour and social level, what Gordon calls “overt discrimination…prohibited by the Human Rights Code of B.C.” At this point, in Barrett’s hands, the issue expands from labour rights to human rights.

As the author paints it, the much-postponed decision is a victory—but only of sorts. The workers are, yes, initially awarded a significant amount.  More to the point, though, to emphasize the vital link to the future, he quotes Wayne Peppard, executive director of the BC Building Trades: “The BC Human Rights Tribunal decision today will improve the lives of tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers in Canada forever….”  Were that it were this simple.

It is the hallmark of the author’s approach that, rather than stopping with the glow of victory, he dives into the complex—and shadowed—follow-up. First is the “pushback”:  Jason Kenney, federal Conservative Cabinet minister, registered his disapproval of the decision. Locally, the BC Liberal Party abolished the Human Rights Commission.  More directly painful for the workers, Gall, working in the company’s interests, called for a “judicial review.”  This challenge, if effective, would have left the workers without a penny and the company victorious.  Frightened of losing everything, the workers eventually settled for half the initial award. 

Likewise, Barrett records the fact that the additional money for some of the workers (involving lost investments, for example) produced no real benefit. In addition, as he reports, SELI made sure that the only Latin Americans who were offered future jobs were the ones who opted out of action against the company.

Still, the author aptly leaves the readers with a conclusion that is both inspiring and moving.  Fittingly, much as he began his book, he concludes it with the stories of individual men. His account of his visit to Costa Rica and delivering the men’s cheques personally, for many readers, will be the most memorable part of the whole book. Even reduced to half, the payment, for most, was transformative.  Their individual stories leave the reader with a vivid sense of breathing human beings and the reality they face. Aptly, too, the author gives the last words to one of the workers, Germán Caro, speaking personally to the author: “That court decision changed everything for us. Thank you.”

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Theo Dombrowski grew up in Port Alberni and studied at UVic and later in Nova Scotia and London, England. With a doctorate in English literature, he returned to teach at Royal Roads, UVic, and finally Lester Pearson College in Metchosin. He also studied painting and drawing at Banff School of Fine Arts and UVic. He lives at Nanoose Bay. You can visit his website here. [Editor’s note: Theo Dombrowski has recently reviewed books by Ruth Ozeki, Collette Colligan and Gregory Mackie, Patricia Bovey, David Gurr, Carla-Jean Stokes, and Gail Sidone Šobat for The British Columbia Review.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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