Saskatchewan eatery owner pleads guilty to charging employee to work for them

MOOSE JAW – A Saskatchewan eatery has pleaded guilty to making one of its staffers pay the owner in order to keep working.

Guac Mexi Grill in Moose Jaw was investigated for requiring a foreign worker to pay $12,000 while working for them between August 2023 and February 2024 to keep his job.

Dhyan Jeny Enterprises, operating as the grill, pleaded guilty on Tuesday of charging a foreign worker a fee for employment and has been ordered to pay $7,000 in fines on top of the $12,000 in restitution to the worker.

The province said the worker’s permanent resident status was dependent on keeping the job.

Court documents detailing the offence obtained by The Canadian Press show the employee, Parth Patel, worked as a supervisor at the grill from January 2022 until February 2024.

An agreed statement of facts between the Crown and defence says the business changed hands in August 2023, which is when Dhyan Jeny demanded Patel pay them to retain his employment.

Patel was close to obtaining his permanent residency status and if he didn’t pay up, the agreed statement says, he would be fired and the federal body overseeing immigration and citizenship notified so that he would no longer eligible for his permanent residency.

The agreed statement says Patel’s employer said they could sell positions in the worker nominee programs for $25,000, which was their plan when they took over the business.

The new owner did not keep Patel on as an employee. Instead, it faked pay stubs and payments, which had to be reimbursed to the employer after each pay period.

Patel negotiated to make three payments of $4,000 between September to October 2023.

He filed a complaint against his employer in March 2024 for harassment and unlawful employment practices, which led to the charges.

The province said this is the first conviction under foreign worker protection legislation, which has since been updated with heftier penalties for violations.

The new legislation raises the penalty to as much as $1.25 million, up from $100,000 in the former act, which was replaced in July 2024 just after the offences happened.

Guac Mexi Grill, an Ontario-headquartered Tex-Mex-styled fast food restaurant, has about 56 locations across Canada, including one listed location in Moose Jaw.

The Canadian Press has contacted the corporate office of Guac Mexi Grill and lawyer for the defendants, but has not received a response.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2026.

Note to readers:This is a corrected story. An earlier release by the Government of Saskatchewan incorrectly spelled the name of the defendant as Dyan Jeny Enterprises. In fact the name is Dhyan Jeny Enterprises.