Who is to blame for the Cargill meat plant? - Punjabi

RADIO - Red FM 106.7 The Evening Show - Calgary, 27/04/2020 - PHONE IN, Punjabi

Translated Summary: Amanjot Singh Pannu - A blame game has begun in various places because of the coronavirus. This is happening at the High River Cargill meat plant as well. It is said that 70% to 80% of the 2,000 workers there are connected to the Filipino community and many belong to the South Asian community. Now there is a blame game occurring. The Filipino community has come forward to say they are being blamed for the spread of the virus. The host asked listeners about who is actually responsible for the spread: the workers, the union, the management, or the government? One caller said that the management appears to be at fault. He said that the occupational health and safety organization that checks all these plants was doing so via videoconference to check whether all the regulations were being followed. He added that checking has to be sudden and in-person and that it is very difficult to maintain social distancing at a meat processing plant. He said that now poor Filipinos are being blamed. They are being stopped from going to grocery stores in High River, and a bank refused them as well. Another caller said that the fault lay with the Alberta government, Premier Jason Kenney, and healthcare. He said that in British Columbia, there is an NDP government and everything is under control. Another caller was of the opinion that the communities working at the plant are at fault because people coming back from India tend to lie on forms. He said that the management did not bring the virus but that it came from within the communities working there. The host said that discrimination against anyone is wrong. He also said that since the workers at the plant are temporary foreign workers, they are afraid to speak up because it may cost them their job and consequently their permanent residence. The host said that the fault lies with the management and a system in which the inspection of whether regulations are being followed or not was done on camera.