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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Thompson man fined $12,000 for illegally hiring Filipinos

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 07/5/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

THE owner of a Thompson gas bar has been fined $12,000 for illegally hiring foreign workers who paid a recruiter thousands of dollars for low-paying jobs in Canada and then were kicked out.

Adnan Chaudhary, owner of the Shell station in Thompson, pleaded guilty last week to misrepresentation and illegally hiring the temporary foreign workers.

Antonio Laroya, Arnisito Gaviola and Ermie Zotomayor were dubbed the "Three Amigos" by supporters in Manitoba's Filipino community. The middle-aged men were laid off from jobs in Alberta and offered work at the gas bar in northern Manitoba. They said their employer promised to update their work permits but didn't. The Filipinos were arrested and lost the income their families back home depended on.

The fine likely won't send a message to other employers who rely on cheap foreign labour, says an advocate for foreign workers in Manitoba.

"I don't think $12,000 dollars is much of a deterrent," said Diwa Marcelino, who befriended the Filipinos in Winnipeg.

"The savings incentive is so high, that's why employers bend the rules," said Marcelino, who works with the organization Migrante Canada. "It's all about the bottom line."

From 2002 to 2008, the number of temporary foreign workers present in Canada rose 148 per cent, to 251,235 from 101,259, a study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy found.

"The fines and likelihood of prosecution is so insignificant, it's a no-brainer decision for those employers and corporations who have the stomach to exploit migrant workers," Marcelino said.

The charges against Chaudhary were laid following an investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency.

"Violations of Canada's immigration laws undermine the integrity of the border and our immigration program," said Sean Best, a CBSA spokesman in Winnipeg. The agency works with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to lay charges when there is sufficient evidence to support convictions for deliberate violations of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, he said.

The border agency arrested the Three Amigos who spent eight hours locked up at the RCMP detachment in Thompson.

The middle-aged men were charged with working illegally. They appeared before an Immigration and Refugee Board Tribunal and were ordered to leave Canada. Regardless of whether their employer was at fault, they were responsible for making sure their work permits hadn't expired, the board ruled.

The three men are trying to get their money back from the Toronto recruiter they paid to find them work in Canada, Marcelino said. In 2007, they got low-paying service jobs in Alberta but were laid off.

Now, after being disallowed from entering Canada for one year, the three are once again applying for temporary work here, Marcelino said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 5, 2012 B2

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