Death of Ontario Migrant Farm Worker Under Investigation

SIMCOE, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 20, 2011) - Authorities continue to investigate the cause of death of a migrant agriculture worker from Mexico who died on Saturday, September 17, after paramedics transferred him from a Simcoe-area farm to the University Hospital in London.

Miguel Juarez Pasion had worked the past four seasons at Procyk Farms near Waterford. For the past few weeks he had been complaining of headaches and numbness in his legs and arms. On Thursday, paramedics were called to the farm where they found the 25-year-old Pasion immobilized. He was rushed to London where he later died in hospital.

"Our thoughts and condolences go out to Miguel Juarez Pasion's family and community," says Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada and the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA). "Farm work is some of the most dangerous work in Canada, and we will continue to press for answers into this tragic and untimely death of a young man who had come to Canada to provide for his family."

UFCW Canada is Canada's largest private sector union and for more than two decades has led the campaign for enhanced labour, workplace and safety rights for farm workers. The AWA is Canada's largest national agriculture workers organization with more than 10,000 members, and ten AWA centres across the country to serve them.

Miguel Juarez Pasion was a member of the AWA, and well known to the community and the staff at the AWA agriculture worker support centre in Simcoe, Ontario. A memorial service will be held for Miguel Juarez Pasion this Friday, September 23 at 6 p.m., at the AWA Simcoe Centre, 44 Peel Street in Simcoe, Ontario.