Return of the Toronto Mass Choir headlines a warm welcome for Niagara’s Caribbean workers

Visitors were welcomed to last month’s Workers Welcome event with Jamaican music. ~ Luke Edwards photo

By Luke Edwards

Even though they spend all day on their feet performing tough physical labour, the Caribbean farm workers in attendance at last month’s Worker Welcome concert couldn’t help but get to their feet and put on their dancing shoes as the Toronto Mass Choir returned to the annual spring event.

With 2026 marking 60 years since the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program began, organizers of the welcome concert wanted an event befitting the anniversary. So they brought back the choir that headlined the 50th anniversary event in 2016.

“It’s so wonderful to see all your faces again,” said Jane Andres, who for 20 years has helped organize welcome events to create a better connection between the workers who come to Niagara-on-the-Lake each year and perform vital agricultural work on our farms and in the orchards.

“We’re really going to feel the love tonight.”

Taking place at Cornerstone Community Church in Virgil, hundreds of locals and seasonal agricultural workers took in the energetic performance of the choir. As they arrived workers received a green cooling towel that they’ll be able to use when the weather gets hot.

“Bright green means the beginning of hope and a new season,” Andres said.

But while they’re meant to cool people off in the hot summer sun, at the concert they were just another way to enjoy the music. As the choir got the crowd to their feet, many waved their green towels in unison.

Coun. Gary Burroughs, who was lord mayor for Niagara-on-the-Lake back in 2007 for the first welcome event, returned to offer greetings last month. His message provided a reminder of the impact the workers have, and not just in the fields.

“You’re helping shape not just the agricultural community, but our whole community,” he said.

“Your presence has enriched this community in ways that go well beyond the fields.” 