Communities with low incomes, immigrants, essential workers hardest hit by COVID-19: study – CBC
‘Striking’ trend seen in multiple provinces, says lead author of peer-reviewed paper
Feb 15, 2022
In the 1990s, after enduring the uncertainty of seasonal work, Kanaiya Gandhi was offered a job at a Toronto-area factory.
It was an ideal move for the young married man who had immigrated to Canada from India just a decade before: regular hours, stable work and the security of a union. As the years passed, Gandhi became an experienced machine operator, building acoustic panels for various airports and arenas while providing for his wife and two daughters in Brampton, Ont.
But one of his daughters, Radhika, said the factory was also the place where her father caught COVID-19.
After he fell ill in December 2020, Radhika kept in touch with Gandhi’s manager at the factory, who told her more and more workers were getting sick — all while her dad’s own situation was deteriorating at home, prompting her to call 911 in early January 2021, after he began struggling to breathe.
About a month later, Gandhi passed away in hospital at the age of 58. He’d spent 26 years of his life working on the factory line.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-communities-immigrants-workers-study-1.6351415
