Right now, Prime Minister Mark Carney is pushing forward Bill C-2. If this bill becomes law, it will allow mass deportations and violate everyone’s privacy rights. For more details on how we are fighting back, read “Stop Bill C-2 from gutting migrant rights” and send an email to your representative.
The Fight Ahead
With the tariff crisis as an excuse, Ontario’s Bill 5 Unleashing our Economy Act and Canada’s Bill C-5 Building Canada Act were quickly made law. They allow corporations to make huge profits by removing hard-won protections for the environment, Indigenous communities, and workers.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also plans to increase military spending by almost $9 billion while cutting our already under-funded public services by 15%. And Bill C-2 is a blueprint for a deportation machine and mass surveillance on us all. We must resist together. Join the Draw the Line mass action on September 20!
For People. For Peace. For the Planet.
Saturday, September 20
Rally & March: 2 pm, Yonge & Dundas
Speakers & Music: 4 pm, Queen’s Park
Wear red in solidarity with migrants
New law for gig workers
The Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act 2022 came into force on July 1 2025. Workers covered by this Act include drivers, food delivery and couriers that accept or decline a work assignment offered by digital platform companies such as Uber. They are often called “gig-workers.”
Instagram | Facebook | Read the full version
Ontario gig workers now have the following rights
1) Transparency on pay and working conditions: For example, when you start working for a company, you must be informed how you get paid and your general working conditions. And for each work assignment, you must be provided information such as its pay, tips and performance ratings.
2) At least minimum wage pay for engaged time (from when you accept an assignment to when you finish it). Engaged time does not include the roughly 40% of time that workers are waiting for an assignment or returning from a food or passenger delivery.
3) Tips cannot be withheld or deducted by the company.
4) A right to know the reason for being removed from the platform. And if the removal is for longer than 24 hours, you must be provided 2 weeks’ notice unless the reason for removal is serious.
5) Protection by the Ontario Ministry of Labour. If the platform company that you work for does not follow the rules in this Act, you can file a claim at the Ministry of Labour. You have a two-year time limit to file from the date of the violation.
The Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act lets workers down
1) It normalizes the misclassification of all gig-workers as self-employed workers.
App-based companies have long treated platform gig-workers as independent contractors to deny them the basic rights we all deserve such as minimum wage, vacation pay and overtime. These companies are now exempt from contributing to their workers’ Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan and WSIB.
2) Rather than ensuring all workers get minimum wage, the Act makes workers more likely to earn a sub-minimum wage.
This law requires minimum wage only for engaged time. It does not cover any time a worker spends waiting for their next assignment. That’s like only paying cashiers when they are actively checking out groceries, or cleaners only being paid when the mop is on the floor.
Minimum wage for “engaged time” also does not take into account expenses needed to do the work, like vehicle maintenance, fuel and phone plans.
3) Pay transparency does not mean you are fairly paid.
Just because you know how you are being paid, it does not mean you are being paid fairly. For example, last year when a $17.61 minimum wage was legislated for New York City ride-hail drivers, Uber intentionally locked out drivers from their apps to avoid paying hundreds of millions in wages to the workers.
No One Left Behind
Here’s the new No One Left Behind leaflet! As a worker centre, WAC will fight for a reliable Employment Insurance system that is accessible, adequate and fair.
The Federal government made minor, temporary changes to EI to make it more accessible during the tariff crisis:
- No 1-week wait to receive EI
- You can get separation payments and EI at the same time
- Less work hours to qualify, depending on where you live
- Easier to qualify for the EI work-sharing program
The changes were extended until October 11, 2025. But they were never enough. The changes mostly apply to people who could already access EI — only 35% of unemployed people! Tell you representatives to fix EI and leave no one behind.
Truck Drivers Survey
We know that wages and working conditions have been declining for frontline truck drivers for years. That is why Justice for Truck Drivers and West Coast Trucking Association want to hear directly from you. Please complete this short survey so that we can strengthen our collective voice to demand better from the government. We want to better organize drivers and push for changes to labour laws that actually protect frontline drivers — not just big companies and bosses.
Take the anonymous survey here in English, Punjabi or Somali: https://linktr.ee/justice4truckdrivers
When completing the survey, you can choose to share your contact information with the campaign so you can stay connected and get more deeply involved.
Please share this survey widely with other truck drivers! We’ll share the results publicly to raise awareness in the future — stay tuned.
WAC Annual General Meeting
From the set up team to the clean up crew, thank you to all who helped at the WAC AGM!
A big thank you to Karuna Narain and Patricia Ramirez, who have finished their term serving on the WAC Board. Welcome to those who were elected for a two-year term: Angela Hamilton, Loretta Fisher, Purnima Chowdhury, and Savitri Sinanan. And thanks to Estina Sebastian-Geetan, Janice Ariza and Yvette LeClair for your continued service.
WAC Update
The WAC office has moved to suite 202, but renovations are not quite done! We cannot accept drop-in visits and no computer booking is available. If you need to meet with a WAC organizer, please contact them directly.