CRSP Talk

Stuck, Silent, and Disposable: how precarious migrants in rural Ontario fight for Legal Aid

GUEST FOR THIS EPISODE Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-social-work/faculty-profiles/nuha-dwaikat-shaer/index.html] is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is also a Steering Committee member at the  Centre for Research on Security Practices. She recently completed her PhD at the School of Social Work at McGill University. Her research focuses on space and housing rights and how that's affected by settler colonial practices. Her broad research agenda focuses on access to social services for racial minorities in settler colonial contexts, rooted in a commitment to human rights and social justice. LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED * Research project page – https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/resources-and-publications/bridging-the-justice-gap-supporting-precarious-migrants-in-rural-ontario.html  [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/resources-and-publications/bridging-the-justice-gap-supporting-precarious-migrants-in-rural-ontario.html] * Community Legal Clinic – Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk (project partner) – https://www.bhnlegalclinic.ca [https://www.bhnlegalclinic.ca] * Hanley, J., Salamanca Cardona, M., Larios, L., Henaway, M., Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Ben Soltane, S., & Eid, P. (2018). Transportation and temp agency work: Risks and opportunities for migrant workers. Cahiers de géographie québécoise, 62(177). https://doi.org/10.7202/1068740ar [https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.7202%2F1068740ar&data=05%7C02%7Cmophillips%40wlu.ca%7C2d679103dde64961791508dea091ebb7%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C639124745879750918%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3A0Go2E653%2BShyhXljZ1iUUAqEkIB9CyE8oiVTdWq4s%3D&reserved=0] * Larios, L., Hanley, J., Salamanca, M., Henaway, M., Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Ben-Soltane, S., & Eid, P. (2020). Engaging migrant care workers: Examining cases of exploitation by recruitment agencies in Quebec, Canada. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 6(1/2), 138–157. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMBS.2020.108690 [https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1504%2FIJMBS.2020.108690&data=05%7C02%7Cmophillips%40wlu.ca%7C2d679103dde64961791508dea091ebb7%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C639124745879776660%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Qk%2B1QLDqILgyCKEuPxxHnHgZoA3qp%2BZ8U%2FF2a1m09B0%3D&reserved=0] * Hanley, J., Larios, L., Salamanca, M., Henaway, M., Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Ben-Soltane, S., & Eid, P. (2017). Gender dynamics of temporary placement agency work: (Im)migrants, know your place! Canadian Diversity, 14(2), 37-42. AI acknowledgment: AI tools were used to generate the background and assist with the layout of the podcast image.  This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio [https://www.folktalestudio.ca/].  It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx].  More information on the Centre for Research on Security Practices at crsp.online [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/index.html].

Misaligned Frameworks (Part II): Migrant Exploitation and Anti-trafficking Efforts

GUESTS FOR THIS EPISODE Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez [https://www.sfu.ca/labour/about/people/evelyn-encalada-grez.html] is a transnational labour scholar and community-labour organizer committed to critical sociology and decolonial theories of knowledge production that centres diverse ways of knowing and precarious workers’ experiences within the margins of the global economy. She is the co-founder of the award-winning collective, Justice for Migrant WorkersJ4MW), that has advocated for the rights of migrant farmworkers in Canada for two decades. Her research bridges grassroots activism with academic scholarship. Through this approach, Dr. Encalada Grez has extensively documented the lives of Mexican migrant farmworker women who work and forge transnational livelihoods between rural Canada and rural Mexico. As a public sociologist, Dr. Encalada Grez has mobilized her research through various media sources such as documentaries, and given talks in venues such as Parliament Hill, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and at the United Nations in New York. She has also worked transnationally with export-processing workers in Mexico and Central America, and as lead travelling faculty teaching US university students in over 6 countries. For three semesters, she was also the Academic Director of an intensive social justice study abroad program in her city of birth, Valparaiso, Chile. Dr. Encalada Grez is driven by her immigrant working class experiences and committed to decolonializing and transformative pedagogies. CO-HOSTS Dr. Katrin Roots [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-human-and-social-sciences/faculty-profiles/katrin-roots/index.html] is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University and has researched Canada’s anti-trafficking efforts for over 15 years. She is the author of Domesticating Human Trafficking: Law, Policing and Prosecution in Canada (2022) and co-editor of Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences (2024). Dr. Jessica Templeman [https://www.mun.ca/sociology/people/core-faculty/] is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her research focuses on exclusionary migration law and policy in Canada, including deportation for criminality and human trafficking. Dr. Ann De Shalit [https://www.uwindsor.ca/socialwork/603/dr-ann-de-shalit] is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Work at the University of Windsor and teaches at Trent and York Universities. She has conducted critical trafficking research since 2009 and has supported grassroots migrant and labour justice activism for over a decade. LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED * If you missed Part 1, listen here.  [https://crsp-talk.simplecast.com/episodes/misalignedframeworkspt1] * Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW)  [https://harvestingfreedom.org/] * Migrant Dreams (documentary film) [https://migrantdreams.ca] * Article from the Toronto Star on migrant farm worker injury and deportability (by Evelyn on Laura’s case) [https://www.thestar.com/opinion/migrant-workers-reap-bitter-harvest-in-ontario/article_317847e7-2012-56bc-95e6-2fb2a9fdcd0c.html] * City of Toronto – Access to City Services for Undocumented Torontonians (AccessTO) [https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/access-to-city-services-for-undocumented-torontonians/] * Canadian Council for Refugees – Access without fear resources [https://ccrweb.ca/en/webinar/access-without-fear-webinar] * Roots, K., De Shalit, A., Templeman, J., Murray, J., Collrin, B., & van der Meulen, E. (2024). Human trafficking or migrant labour exploitation? Bridging the knowledge gap. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Wilfrid Laurier University.  [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-human-and-social-sciences/faculty-profiles/katrin-roots/traffickingormigrantlabour-researchreport-feb2024.pdf] * Roots, K., De Shalit, A., & Van Der Meulen, E. (2024). Trafficking harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences. [https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/trafficking-harms]   This two-part series was supported by a Knowledge Synthesis Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). CRSP Talk is a production of the Centre for Research on Security Practices (CRSP) at Wilfrid Laurier University. This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio [https://www.folktalestudio.ca/].  It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx].  More information on the Centre for Research on Security Practices at crsp.online [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/index.html].

Misaligned Frameworks (Part I): Migrant Exploitation and Anti-trafficking Efforts

GUESTS FOR THIS EPISODE Vincent Wong [https://www.uwindsor.ca/law/3050/vincent-wong-assistant-professor] joined the University of Windsor Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor in 2022. He is also a PhD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School, where his dissertation focuses on racial capitalism and the processes that produce and structure unfree status-excluded labour in Canada. He serves on the board of the Community Justice Collective (Tkaronto). Professor Wong  holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto and a Master of Laws from Columbia Law School, where he was a Human Rights Fellow and James Kent Scholar. Professor Wong’s research focuses on law and political economy – specifically at the nexus between migration, race, markets, and the law. He is particularly interested in how a Canadian context-specific critical race theory (CRT) can better inform and be informed by the practice of anti-racist and intersectional movement lawyering. Professor Wong is also interested in what critical frameworks of law and political economy have to offer in the context of understanding the emerging hub of the 21st century global economic order: China. Prior to academia, Professor Wong worked as a Staff Lawyer at the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and Secretary of the Chinese Canadian National Council - Toronto Chapter. He has also previously held positions at the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto and the African American Policy Forum. Chanelle Gallant [https://www.chanellegallant.com/]is an abolitionist feminist who has been fighting to free women’s sexuality from criminalization for over 25 years. She is a frontline organizer, writer, thinker, strategist, and the co-author of Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2258-not-your-rescue-project]. Chanelle has contributed to dozens of influential publications, including Pleasure Activism, and spoken everywhere from Princeton, Columbia, and the London School of Economics to the UN Special Rapporteur, and at thousands of organizing meetings and trainings. She is currently a visiting Activist-Scholar [https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/2025-26-visiting-scholars/] at the Centre for Feminist Research at York University, Toronto. Chanelle cut her teeth fighting the cops as a core organizer in the historic fight [https://xtramagazine.com/power/queer-womens-bathhouse-police-179581] against the Pussy Palace raid in 2000, and went on to found numerous sex work organizations and SURJ-Toronto. She now sits on the national board for multiple organizations in the US and Canada. Chanelle is a queer femme, a survivor, and the eldest daughter of a poor family that has been impacted by criminalization and incarceration. She works as a money coach and advisor, social movement strategy consultant, and trainer. Chanelle is a Lambda Literary Fellow and holds an M.A. in Sociology. CO-HOSTS Dr. Katrin Roots [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-human-and-social-sciences/faculty-profiles/katrin-roots/index.html] is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University and has researched Canada’s anti-trafficking efforts for over 15 years. She is the author of Domesticating Human Trafficking: Law, Policing and Prosecution in Canada (2022) and co-editor of Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences (2024). Dr. Jessica Templeman [https://www.mun.ca/sociology/people/core-faculty/] is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and a member of the Collaborative for Racial Justice. Her research focuses on exclusionary migration law and policy in Canada, including deportation for criminality and human trafficking. Dr. Ann De Shalit [https://www.uwindsor.ca/socialwork/603/dr-ann-de-shalit] is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Work at the University of Windsor and teaches at Trent and York Universities. She has conducted critical trafficking research since 2009 and has supported grassroots migrant and labour justice activism for over a decade. LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED * Gallant, C., & Lam, E. (2024). Not your rescue project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice. [https://www.notyourrescueprojectbook.com/] * Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Worker Support Network [https://www.butterflysw.org/] * Canadian immigration enforcement and deportability; reference to IRPA section 37 [https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/section-37.html](“organized crime” inadmissibility) and its low evidentiary threshold in practice * Recent Supreme Court of Canada case referenced as R v Kloubakov [https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/21132/index.do] (in relation to sex work provisions and who is heard/excluded) * Roots, K., De Shalit, A., Templeman, J., Murray, J., Collrin, B., & van der Meulen, E. (2024). Human trafficking or migrant labour exploitation? Bridging the knowledge gap. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Wilfrid Laurier University.  [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-human-and-social-sciences/faculty-profiles/katrin-roots/traffickingormigrantlabour-researchreport-feb2024.pdf] * Roots, K., De Shalit, A., & Van Der Meulen, E. (2024). Trafficking harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences. [https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/trafficking-harms]   This episode was funded by a Knowledge Synthesis Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). CRSP Talk is a production of the Centre for Research on Security Practices (CRSP) at Wilfrid Laurier University. NEXT EPISODE Part 2 continues the series with organizer and scholar Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez, focusing on migrant workers, labour precarity, and resistance, where we discuss what changes when trafficking discourse is applied to labour sectors beyond sex work. This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio [https://www.folktalestudio.ca/].  It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx].  More information on the Centre for Research on Security Practices at crsp.online [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/index.html].

Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology: public perceptions and engagement in policy making

Guests for this episode: Christopher D. O’Connor [https://ontariotechu.ca/experts/fssh/christopher-oconnor.php] is an Associate Professor in the Criminology and Justice program at Ontario Tech University. His primary research areas include policing, youth participation in crime, rapid growth communities, and emerging/disruptive technologies. He has researched public perceptions of a range of issues including crime, disruptive technologies, and attitudes toward the police. More recently, his research has examined police data quality and collection techniques, auxiliary police, and the use of facial recognition technology by the police.   Andrea Slane [https://socialscienceandhumanities.ontariotechu.ca/research/researcher-profiles/dr.-andrea-slane.php] is a Professor in the Legal Studies program at Ontario Tech University.  Her research focuses on privacy, data protection, and the variety of legal regimes that protect people from both individual and commercial wrongdoing online, over digital devices and via smart technologies. She uses a range of methods including doctrinal legal analysis, qualitative data collection and analysis, and cultural studies to contribute to determining more just means to regulate the flow of personal and community level information, whether between individuals; individuals and businesses; businesses and government; business to business; or to the public.   Links to Research: Andrea Slane, “Privacy Protective Roadblocks and Speedbumps Restraining Law Enforcement Use of Facial Recognition Software in Canada” (2021) 69:2 Criminal Law Quarterly 216-236. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4275241 [https://ssrn.com/abstract=4275241] Christopher O’Connor, Andrea Slane, Dallas Bouckley (Hill) and Victoria Baker, “Public Perceptions of Facial Recognition Use by Police in Canada” (2025) Policing and Society, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2508192 [https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2508192] Dallas Hill, Christopher O’Connor, and Andrea Slane, “Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology: The Potential for Engaging the Public through Co-Constructed Policy-Making” (2022) 24:3 International Journal of Police Science and Management, 325-335, https://doi.org/10.1177/14613557221089558 [https://doi.org/10.1177/14613557221089558]. Bradford, B., et al., 2020. Live facial recognition: trust and legitimacy as predictors of public support for police use of new technology. The British journal of criminology, 60 (6), 1502–1522. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaa032 [https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaa032] Bragias, A., Hine, K., and Fleet, R., 2021. Only in our best interest, right?’ Public perceptions of police use of facial recognition technology. Police practice and research, 22 (6), 1637–1654. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2021.1942873 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15614263.2021.1942873]     This episode was funded, in part, by Venture13 Policetech Accelerator [https://nventure.ca/policetech] This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio [https://www.folktalestudio.ca/].  It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx].  More information on the Centre for Research on Security Practices at crsp.online [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/index.html].

Research in Settler Colonial Contexts: a conversation on Palestine

Executive Producer for this episode is: Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer [https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-social-work/faculty-profiles/nuha-dwaikat-shaer/index.html] is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is also a Steering Committee member at the  Centre for Research on Security Practices. She recently completed her PhD at the School of Social Work at McGill University. Her research focuses on space and housing rights and how that's affected by settler colonial practices. Her broad research agenda focuses on access to social services for racial minorities in settler colonial contexts, rooted in a commitment to human rights and social justice. Guests for this episode include:  Ron Smith [https://www.bucknell.edu/fac-staff/ron-smith] is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Much of his work is focused on Palestine, The West Bank and Gaza.  Omar Jabary Salamanca  [https://msh.ulb.ac.be/en/who/omar-jabary-salamanca]  is a Research Fellow and Co-Director Of The Observatory Of The Arab and Muslim Worlds at the University of Bristol in Belgium. His research and teaching focus on questions of Political Geography, Political Economy and Political Ecology In Settler Colonial Contexts. This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio [https://www.folktalestudio.ca/].  It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx].  More information on the Centre for Research on Security Practices at crsp.online [https://researchcentres.wlu.ca/centre-for-research-on-security-practices/index.html].