Canucks owner’s family in hot water after workers expose harassment and threats to media!

Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini has always been quick to answer rumours surrounding his team, but we wonder if he will do the same when chatter affects his family. 

On Tuesday, it was revealed by Ash Kelly that “seven temporary foreign workers employed at an Aquilini owned blueberry farm at the centre of an unpaid wages case say they were harrassed, intimidated and threatened with deportation. They spoke to the media for more than an hour this morning through a translator.”

Several allegations involve Luigi Aquilini, Francesco's father. 

Here is what Kelly revealed from the statements made by the workers about the treatment by the Aquilinis and what happened on the farm:

“The women say they lived in cramped housing, one house with 76 women another with 22 women in Pitt Meadows. There was a shortage of toilets, stoves for cooking and fridges for food they say. They also say management came into their rooms at night and counted them in their beds.

Gloria Suy Hernandez injured herself and became ill but didn’t say anything because workers who spoke up were not given work the next season. Osmery Arteaga says she injured her wrist but it wasn’t treated and conditions at the machine she was working on never got better. 

Workers say they were denied water by Luigi Aquilini himelf - who they say forced them to pick 15lbs of blueberries in an hour before he would allow them any water.

The women say many of them became sick and think it was because the farm would spray pesticides in the field while the workers were trying to eat their lunches. They were never warned about the dangers of pesticides they say.

The women all attribute their ability to get off the farm and out of the farm-run boarding homes to @MigrantDignity and say the group needs more funding to teach TFW their rights.”

Kelly added that they have also reached out to the Aquilinis for a response to these allegations.

We are sure to hear more about this, but if any of it is true, this is disgraceful…