New signs are going up across Niagara, reminding motorists to watch for migrant farmworkers after a series of serious road incidents, including a fatal hit-and-run earlier this year.
The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is installing large, reflective signs reading “LOOK OUT FOR MIGRANT WORKERS” at five locations where migrant farmworkers have been killed or seriously injured. Signs are also being placed outside municipal offices in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lincoln and St. Catharines.
Executive Director Syed Hussan says 39-year-old migrant farmworker Sinhue Garcia, a father, was killed in a hit-and-run in Niagara about three months ago. He says Garcia is among seven migrant farmworkers the organization knows of who have been killed or seriously injured while walking or cycling in the region.
He says the risks are compounded by long working hours, employer-controlled housing and a lack of safe road infrastructure, including proper shoulders and cycling protections.
Hussan says the campaign is also calling on all levels of government to take action, including improvements to housing standards and labour laws, as well as a coroner's inquest into the deaths.
Hussan says migrant farmworkers have been coming to Canada since 1966, with Niagara among the first places where the program operated.
The reflective signs were installed at the following locations:
-
Concession 6 between Line 4 and Line 5 Roads, Niagara-on-the-Lake: Sinhue Garcia, 39, a husband and father of two, was killed while cycling home in June 2026.
-
Concession 7 near Line 6, Niagara-on-the-Lake: Zenaida, a 33-year-old Mexican farm worker and mother of two, was killed in a hit-and-run while walking in 2019.
-
Lakeshore Road and Townline Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake: Omar, a migrant farm worker, was seriously injured in a hit-and-run while cycling in 2023.
-
Carlton Street and Dorchester Boulevard, St. Catharines: Ceto Reid, a Jamaican farm worker who had been coming to Canada for nearly two decades, was seriously injured in 2022 while cycling home from a laundromat nearly eight kilometres away.
-
Seventh Street Louth, between South Service Road and Second Avenue Louth, St. Catharines: Fermin Soto Sanchez was killed in 2022, and his co-workers Alfonzo and Francisco were seriously injured after they were struck while travelling with their bicycles.
The organization has also launched a pledge for municipal election candidates in St. Catharines, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Lincoln. Hussan says 36 of the 63 candidates in those communities have signed on, committing to speak up for migrant workers if elected.
The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a membership-led organization supporting workers across Canada in advocating for changes to their living and working conditions.
Hussan says the signs are intended to remind motorists to be cautious while encouraging decision-makers to address the broader issues that put migrant workers at risk.
(Written by: Matt Latour)