The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change has erected signs in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lincoln and St. Catharines to urge motorists to consider the safety of workers on bicycles.

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE — As cars sped past the Concession 6 Rd. site where migrant farm worker Sinhue Garcia was killed in June, Kit Andres of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) drew attention to how vulnerable and exposed the group gathered just feet from the shoulder must have been feeling.

“I wanted us to take a moment and acknowledge this feeling,” said Andres. “We're here with heavy hearts; we're here with grief. And we're also standing at the side of the road. There's no protection here from passing cars. How does it feel? It feels scary.”

Andres and Syed Hussan, MWAC’s executive director, were there to install a reflective sign next to Garcia’s roadside memorial, urging drivers to slow down for migrant workers. It’s one of eight installed in Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Catharines and Lincoln, five of which are at sites where seven farmworkers were either killed or injured. Three others are situated at the offices of the municipalities.

Garcia, a 39-year-old father of two from Mexico, was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle on the evening of June 16. Fellow migrant workers witnessed his death. NOTL resident Gavin Devries, 22, is facing charges of failure to stop after an accident resulting in death and impaired operation causing death.

Other sites include Concession 7 Rd. in NOTL, where in 2019, Zenaida, a 33-year-old Mexican farm worker and mother, was killed in a hit-and-run while walking, and Seventh Street Louth in rural St. Catharines. That’s where Fermin Soto Sanchez was killed in 2022, while his co-workers Alfonzo and Francisco were seriously injured after being struck while travelling on their bicycles.

“Migrant farm workers have been coming to Canada (and Niagara) for 60 years, feeding our communities, growing food, taking care of our loved ones,” said Hussan. “And because they have low wages and because there is no public transit, they have no choice but to take bicycles or walk on these streets … on streets where there are no shoulders, no bike safety systems.”

Hussan and Andres are appealing to all levels of government, including the Niagara Region and the Town of NOTL, to take action to improve road safety. Hussan said a series of policies currently in place push migrant workers onto the dangerous rural roads, often in the dark. The MWAC wants the Region and the Town to implement road safety measures in conversation with the migrant workers, so they can point out which routes are unsafe.

“At the same time, we are calling on the Ontario government to do a coroner's inquest to investigate and make recommendations on all of these deaths that are taking place here, year after year after year,” Hussan added. “And we are calling on the federal government to ensure permanent resident status and create housing standards.”

The sign campaign is the latest in a series of efforts by the MWAC to urge candidates in the 2026 municipal election, now less than two weeks away, to consider the safety and living conditions of farmworkers in their platforms. [...]

New signs on rural roads demand action on migrant worker safety