Dozens of migrant farm workers’ rights were examined in an Ontario tribunal’s work into a complaint stemming from a 2013 incident involving the pursuit of a suspected rapist. (CBC)

Provincial police racially targeted 54 migrant farm workers during the hunt for a suspected rapist in 2013, forcing dozens of workers to hand over DNA samples despite “obvious” physical evidence they didn’t match the suspect’s description, according to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. 

The recent decision is the first time the provincial rights watchdog has ruled on the way law enforcement agencies conduct DNA sweeps and, perhaps most importantly, how police interact with migrant farm workers — a population the