The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery has released a report calling Canada's reliance on temporary foreign workers - particularly employed in the agriculure and care sectors - a "breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery". The report, following Tomota Obokata's visit in August and September 2023, identifies a series of challenges facing workers in supply chains as well as a set of recommendations to the Government of Canada in addressing these challenges.

A core part of the report focuses on the challenges for migrant workers, particularly those employed through Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program and hired on employer-specific, closed work permits which it highlights create a significant power imbalance in favour of employers. Barriers to accessing unions, lack of access to information, intimidation in the workplace and fear of deportation, difficulties in accessing healthcare in practice, substandard living conditions and a lack of jurisdictional oversight over conditions for workers were all highlighted as particular adverse impacts for migrant workers.

The report was criticised a "extreme" by farmers in Essex County and industry bodies that point to improvements in recent years, but welcomed by workers' rights advocates and organisers who called the findings "nothing new".

An article in The Conversation says the Canadian Government will stop processing employer requests for temporary migrant workers in cities with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher. The article argues this response falls short, and greater reform of the
country's temporary labour programme is needed, included paths to permanent residency and citizenship for migrants to reduce the risk of abuse.