Another idea for local activists for our panel on Making Labour a Social Force.

Lynne Fernandez has for some years worked with the Migrant Workers Solidarity Network in Manitoba, and they did interviews with Mexican workers about abuses on some of the farms.  When they reported those abuses to ES, one of the officers was able to audit farmers' books and establish that workers were not being paid properly.  The Manitoba legislation passed by the previous government allowed them to do that, and to demand a remedy.

On Poverty and the Fight for a Material Existence, I recommend Kirsten Bernas, who is without doubt a community activist. Here are just two entries about her:

Kirsten Bernas chairs the Provincial Working Group of The Right to Housing Coalition, a CCPA Manitoba Research Associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba and is the Researcher and Policy Manager for The Canadian Community Economic Development Network in the Manitoba office.  

Kirsten Bernas is a Research and Policy Manager with the Canadian Community Economic Development (CED) Network in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Kirsten represents the Canadian CED Network on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s Alternative Federal Budget Steering Committee, Make Poverty History Canada’s Steering Committee, and Right to Housing Coalition’s Provincial Committee. She has been an active member of Make Poverty History Manitoba.

julie