Calgary restaurant owners handed jail terms for taking advantage of immigrant workers

https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/calgary-restaurant-owners-jail-terms-foreign-workers

21 Comments

  1. Excellent news! The only thing that would make this story even better is if they were Tim Horton’s franchise owners.

  2. Lost_Protection_5866 on

    3 months of weekend jail isn’t enough but atleast it’s a start. Stealing 44k should get you more then that

  3. So not only were they abusing the temporary foreign worker program hiring workers that could have been Canadian they were forcing the workers to cover the labour market impact assessment (LMIA) cost of $1,000 per worker. I guess they realized the power they held over the workers and started fabricating other bogus government fees which is how they ended up collecting tens of thousands of dollars from these poor people. Truly disgusting. Wish they would’ve got a longer sentence. 90 days + probation is a slap on the wrist.

  4. Mysteriouskid00 on

    Incredibly common. I even know a guy who basically had the same thing happen to him. Owner demanded he pay $3/hr of his wage back to the owner in cash. This was on top of the $30,000 the owner demand to even sponsor him.

  5. My neighbour works in a cannabis store, an “immigration consultant” set up the job where the owner declares paying them $37 and hour but actually pays them $15. Then each cheque they give back half their cheque in cash and put it but the business safe in their office. No conversation had outside of the initial one after the job was taken, it’s a bound visa which means they can’t leave the job or their whole family is forced out of Canada.

    They pay taxes on that whole income despite not actually making it and have limited access to healthcare options in some spaces because they’re not permanent residents. I can’t think of a more fucked up situation, the owner and immigration consultant are morally fucking bankrupt. When my neighbour is able to secure a study visa they can leave that job, and if they feel safe I’ll try to help them recover their stolen wages and reporting the business. But I’m not optimistic it’ll be something that gets resolved quickly, plus it’s just one of many businesses doing the same thing.

  6. 90 days served on weekends is a joke.

    Thanks Harper and Kenney for this. They were the ones that started the TFW program that continued under Trudeau.

  7. true_to_my_spirit on

    I work in the immigration sector doing settlement services. This os extremely common, and happens at 95% of the places that have TFW. 

    Seriously, hotels, restaurants,  farms. Fucking everywhere. 

    We’ve been telling the feds and prov for years.  

  8. drs_ape_brains on

    I remember when the restaurant industry told us they are not a problem when it comes to TFWs.

    And people gobbled it up and defended them. I wonder where they are now.