According to the UN, Canadians with intellectual disabilities are being exploited

Academic rigour, Samuel Ragot, PhD Candidate, McGill University, August 20, 2024
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly how many people with an intellectual disability are in sheltered work programs in Canada.
Canada was recently criticized by Tomoya Obokata, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, in relation to the shortcomings of the temporary foreign worker program. However, this was not the Special Rapporteur’s only criticism. The working conditions of persons with intellectual disabilities also drew his attention. As a researcher on issues related to the financial security and employment of persons with disabilities, and as someone who works in the field of public policy, I would like to shed some light on a controversial practice that is still widespread in Canada: sheltered work programs. Relatively unknown to the general public, sheltered work programs are a historical legacy of the longstanding segregation and exploitation persons with intellectual disabilities have experienced throughout North America. Unlike institutionalization, which has been in relative decline, sheltered work programs are still thriving, despite repeated calls to end them in both Canada and in Québec.