Why Is Stephen Harper Sending Domestic Workers Back to 1973?

"We scrub the floors, we cook the meals, we raise the children -- why aren't we good enough to stay?" asked Eulene Boyce, a West Indian domestic worker.

"We are here ... united in our stand ... calling for an end to the system of indentured servitude which, since 1973, has denied over 60,000 domestic workers the right to landed status in Canada," added a spokesperson for INTERCEDE (International Coalition to End Domestics' Exploitation)

How US Domestic Workers Won Their Rights

Domestic workers in the United States had some breakthrough wins this fall. These workers had been excluded from protections such as a guaranteed minimum wage, paid breaks and overtime pay. But on Sept. 17, the Obama administration announced new rules extending the Fair Labour Standards Act to include the 800,000 to two-million home-health workers -- those who help seniors and others with self-care tasks like taking medications, bathing and shopping -- under the federal government's wage and hour protections.

Protect the Global Domestic Worker: Report

Working in other people's homes is no guarantee of safety and dignity, according to a new report that finds domestics all over the world are vulnerable to economic exploitation, overwork, rape and other forms of physical abuse.

In the wake of that new UN sponsored research, local advocates say that Canada should be doing more to protect those who tend our children, clean our houses, cook our meals and care for the ill and the dying.