{~_~} Раиса
2014-05-06 01:03:49 UTC
Is there ANY country in the world that hasn't got people working in
Canada? Any that are so much better at those jobs than are Canadians?
The Harper government isn't just giving away our manufacturing jobs to
other countries, he's giving our remaining jobs in Canada to foreigners.
Remind me again just WHO would have been stupid enough to vote for this
government? They should be up on charges of treason by our courts.
________________________________________
http://www.cbc.ca - May 05, 2014
Foreign worker reports death threats, coercion
Records show temp foreign workers paid next to nothing for work at B.C.
mall kiosks
A temporary foreign worker who sold massage devices and other products
in mall kiosks has reported he and his colleagues worked hundreds of
hours for no pay, while forced to live under constant threat of deportation.
“It’s all organized from the start,” said Anton Soloviov, 25, who worked
for 0860005 B.C. Ltd, a company run by B.C. resident Dor Mordechai and
his wife, Anna Lepski.
The couple operated kiosks in malls in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and on
Vancouver Island, including in Nanaimo's Woodgrove Centre, where
Soloviov worked.
“They import you as a worker. Then they put you to 12-hours-a-day work …
and they don’t pay you. So basically, that’s human trafficking,” he said.
Mall Kiosk for foreign workers
Immigration officials have determined Soloviov fits in the category of a
"victim of trafficking in persons," while his former supervisor Azi
Qizel is under RCMP investigation for uttering threats.
"We lived on really the bare minimum,” said Soloviov. “Two bucks a
kilogram of perogies or pasta or rice or whatever, until we actually ran
out of money.”
Still in business
Go Public found some of the company’s mall kiosks still open for
business, though. At least one is currently staffed by a foreign worker
who told us she is from Spain.
Several government agencies have known about the B.C. company’s
practices for months. Other mall kiosks, staffed by Israelis, were
raided by the Canada Border Services Agency in 2011 in Ottawa and Halifax.
Nanaimo sales
[ This salesperson currently working in Nanaimo at a kiosk run by the
B.C. company said she is from Spain. (CBC) ]
Despite that, Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s department didn’t
revoke the B.C. company’s foreign worker permits when the latest
allegations surfaced and the company continued advertising for workers.
“If they won't take it seriously, nobody will take it seriously,” said
Soloviov, who is upset the company wasn't penalized.
“I don’t want it to continue. I need to look over my shoulder…because I
had death threats against me.”
Soloviov came from Israel in September to work in the kiosks after he
said a recruitment agency at home promised him he could make a lot of
money selling Pinook massage devices and Extreme Energy bracelets.
He hoped it was his ticket to become a Canadian.
“I wanted to become a citizen…not just a temporary foreign worker,” said
Soloviov.
“The sales pitch was originally, ‘Come here, make $5,000 each month …
even if you are not a good salesman, Canadians are really easy people to
sell to.'”
Told to lie from start
He said he had a choice of working in Vancouver, Ottawa or Toronto, as
part of an international sales operation. After he was interviewed by
phone by the B.C. employer, he said he was told to pay the $1,900
airfare to get to Vancouver, and he said the employer told him to lie to
border officials upon arrival and should pretend to be a tourist.
Federal rules require employers to cover airfare for temporary foreign
workers they bring in.
“I basically sold everything, little that I had, and came in high hopes
and dreams in a new country,” said Soloviov, who said his dream faded
fast once he arrived.
Soloviov said Qizel immediately took him to a sparsely furnished, rented
house in Nanaimo, where he and four other workers were told they had to
live, under the supervisor's watch.
Anton Soloviov
[ Five foreign workers, including Soloviov, were made to live in this
rented Nanaimo home, with their supervisor. (Anton Soloviov) ]
He said they were told they could work illegally, or pay $500 more for a
work visa.
“He basically told me if you want to work legally, pay me 500 bucks
right now and I will go make the paperwork for you,” said Soloviov, who
chose the legal route.
The written Labour Market Opinion (LMO) issued to the company — which
allowed it to hire foreign workers — said they must be paid $13 an hour
and $21 an hour for any overtime.
'Completely fake'
“It’s completely fake, right. [The employer] just makes the contract
look good in order to get the LMO,” said Soloviov.
To qualify for that permit, rules require the employer must try to find
Canadians for the job first. Soloviov said that of the 50 or so mall
kiosk salespeople working for Mordechai and his wife, not one was Canadian.
“I mean come on…$13 an hour and $21 overtime, working as a retail
salesperson in a mall…I don’t think you’ll have trouble finding [local]
workers for that position,” said Soloviov. “But, if you are not paying
them, that’s a bit of a problem.”
Payroll records show he and others weren’t paid any hourly wages.
[Payroll records for three of the workers show they earned an hourly
salary of $0. During a two week period, this employee put in 116 hours,
but received no pay. (CBC) ]
“After we actually agreed to everything, [Qizel] just said ‘Look guys
you are working on commission. You don’t like it, you can get deported,
I am cancelling your permit,'" said Soloviov.
He said they were told they would get 25 per cent from each sale. The
shock came on paydays, he said, when they received next to nothing. The
employer deducted $225 every two weeks for rent plus other “fines," from
the little pay they were supposed to get.
“If you look at it, it’s modern slavery. Because some people were not
actually paid at all,” said Soloviov. “I got paid 50 bucks or 100 bucks
in the three months I worked and that’s bad exploitation. But some
people were actually slaves and ended up owing him money.”
Soloviov said the fines were deducted arbitrarily for small infractions.
Fined for talking, using phones
“If you were caught just checking your time on your phone, you were
fined $100,” said Soloviov.
“[Qizel] said, ‘I don’t want you speaking to each other, because you are
not making any sales. If I catch you talking, $50 off your paycheque.'”
In one pay period, records show Soloviov and another worker were docked
more for fines than what they earned, leaving them both almost $300 in
debt to their employer after working several 12-hour days.
Soloviov said Qizel also berated them for not selling enough and
constantly threatened them with deportation.
Anton Soloviov
[ Anton Soloviov says foreign workers were constantly threatened with
deportation and fined for talking to each other because that meant they
weren't making sales. (CBC) ]
“His main threat…was ‘I am just going to cancel your work permit that
you paid for and I will call Immigration and they will deport you within
two weeks’.”
Go Public asked Woodgrove Centre Mall, where Soloviov worked, for a
response to this situation.
General manager Mark Fenwick called back and said, "From our
perspective, there is no story here." He indicated the mall considers it
to be a matter for the employees to sort out with their employer.
In December, Soloviov became fed up and looked into his rights in
Canada. He eventually told his supervisor he was going to file a claim
with B.C.’s employment standards branch for unpaid wages.
He said Qizel flew into a rage and trashed the rental home. Soloviov
alleges he also called him on his cellphone and threatened to bring
someone to Nanaimo to kill him.
'Terrified' by threats
“There were direct death threats and physical harm threats. He said, 'If
you open your mouth about any of this, I am going to kill you,'” said
Soloviov.
“The female workers were really terrified and were hiding in their
quarters in the house and that was pretty bad. And he was just rampaging
around the house, throwing chairs, breaking stuff. It wasn’t pretty.”
Soloviov fled immediately to Nanaimo RCMP. While he was at the
detachment, he said he got another call from an unidentified
Hebrew-speaking man who said he was coming to the island by ferry to put
a bullet in his head.
“In Israel, if somebody wants to get you, they will probably get you.
You come with that mentality to this country…so it was pretty bad.”
The call was recorded by police, Soloviov said, and officers then went
to the mall to try to find Qizel, but he’d disappeared.
RCMP confirmed to Go Public that there is still an active, ongoing
investigation into uttering threats.
Immigration authorities have since issued exclusion orders to nine other
Israelis working at the B.C. mall kiosks, requiring them to leave the
country for working illegally or violating the terms of their visa by
working at the wrong mall location.
"The CBSA is aware that some foreign nationals have been circumventing
the legal avenues to work in Canada in a number of industries," said a
spokesperson from the Canada Border Services Agency.
"Those removed in recent years as part of the mall kiosks, have sold a
number of different products including beauty products, radio controlled
toys and electronic cigarettes to name a few items."
Victims punished: lawyer
Toronto-based immigration lawyer Vanessa Routley has been trying to
expose companies that exploit temporary foreign workers. She pointed out
it’s almost always the workers who are punished — not the employers —
which drives workers further underground.
“It's time for Canadians to really ask themselves, are we happy to have
a servant class of people who can't stay permanently, people who toil
for a pittance for years on end and then are asked to leave sometimes
with no warning?” asked Routley.
She suggested the government should give foreign workers who are already
here a path to citizenship and focus on going after bad employers.
[Anton Soloviov posed for this picture with Anna Lepski, general
manager of 0860005 B.C. Ltd, the week he arrived in Canada. The company
is owned by her husband, Dor Mordechai. (Anton Soloviov) ]
“If this truly was human trafficking, if these people are basically
indentured servants who are earning nothing, someone needs to be charged
criminally.”
In question period Monday, as a result of Go Public's inquiries,
Employment Minister Jason Kenney responded to questions from the
Opposition about why the government hasn't acted on complaints it's
known about for months.
"It does point to the need for better information-sharing between law
enforcement agencies so that when one investigation is opened in the
police force, for example, that administrative agencies are made
informed. But Mr. Speaker we take such allegations very seriously and
criminal sanctions are potential in this case," said Kenney.
Two other workers joined Soloviov in filing a complaint with the B.C.
authorities, but they’ve have since gone back to their home countries.
He stayed in a homeless shelter in Nanaimo for weeks and went on social
assistance.
Because of the serious allegations about his employer, the immigration
department then gave him a new open work permit for six months, so he’s
found a new, temporary job.
He said he’s speaking out to warn his countrymen to beware.
“I'm looking to be a citizen — a normal citizen — and not a system
exploiter of some sorts. I do have lots of skills,” said Soloviov. “And
I don't want more young people to come here and get hurt.”
Go Public asked Dor Mordechai, director of the B.C. company that
employed Soloviov, for a response to this story. His lawyer wrote back
that, because of the employment standards complaint, he had no comment.
________________________________________________________
Submit your story ideas:
Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.
We tell your stories and hold the powers that be accountable.
We want to hear from people across the country with stories they want to
make public.
Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public
Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter
Canada? Any that are so much better at those jobs than are Canadians?
The Harper government isn't just giving away our manufacturing jobs to
other countries, he's giving our remaining jobs in Canada to foreigners.
Remind me again just WHO would have been stupid enough to vote for this
government? They should be up on charges of treason by our courts.
________________________________________
http://www.cbc.ca - May 05, 2014
Foreign worker reports death threats, coercion
Records show temp foreign workers paid next to nothing for work at B.C.
mall kiosks
A temporary foreign worker who sold massage devices and other products
in mall kiosks has reported he and his colleagues worked hundreds of
hours for no pay, while forced to live under constant threat of deportation.
“It’s all organized from the start,” said Anton Soloviov, 25, who worked
for 0860005 B.C. Ltd, a company run by B.C. resident Dor Mordechai and
his wife, Anna Lepski.
The couple operated kiosks in malls in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and on
Vancouver Island, including in Nanaimo's Woodgrove Centre, where
Soloviov worked.
“They import you as a worker. Then they put you to 12-hours-a-day work …
and they don’t pay you. So basically, that’s human trafficking,” he said.
Mall Kiosk for foreign workers
Immigration officials have determined Soloviov fits in the category of a
"victim of trafficking in persons," while his former supervisor Azi
Qizel is under RCMP investigation for uttering threats.
"We lived on really the bare minimum,” said Soloviov. “Two bucks a
kilogram of perogies or pasta or rice or whatever, until we actually ran
out of money.”
Still in business
Go Public found some of the company’s mall kiosks still open for
business, though. At least one is currently staffed by a foreign worker
who told us she is from Spain.
Several government agencies have known about the B.C. company’s
practices for months. Other mall kiosks, staffed by Israelis, were
raided by the Canada Border Services Agency in 2011 in Ottawa and Halifax.
Nanaimo sales
[ This salesperson currently working in Nanaimo at a kiosk run by the
B.C. company said she is from Spain. (CBC) ]
Despite that, Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s department didn’t
revoke the B.C. company’s foreign worker permits when the latest
allegations surfaced and the company continued advertising for workers.
“If they won't take it seriously, nobody will take it seriously,” said
Soloviov, who is upset the company wasn't penalized.
“I don’t want it to continue. I need to look over my shoulder…because I
had death threats against me.”
Soloviov came from Israel in September to work in the kiosks after he
said a recruitment agency at home promised him he could make a lot of
money selling Pinook massage devices and Extreme Energy bracelets.
He hoped it was his ticket to become a Canadian.
“I wanted to become a citizen…not just a temporary foreign worker,” said
Soloviov.
“The sales pitch was originally, ‘Come here, make $5,000 each month …
even if you are not a good salesman, Canadians are really easy people to
sell to.'”
Told to lie from start
He said he had a choice of working in Vancouver, Ottawa or Toronto, as
part of an international sales operation. After he was interviewed by
phone by the B.C. employer, he said he was told to pay the $1,900
airfare to get to Vancouver, and he said the employer told him to lie to
border officials upon arrival and should pretend to be a tourist.
Federal rules require employers to cover airfare for temporary foreign
workers they bring in.
“I basically sold everything, little that I had, and came in high hopes
and dreams in a new country,” said Soloviov, who said his dream faded
fast once he arrived.
Soloviov said Qizel immediately took him to a sparsely furnished, rented
house in Nanaimo, where he and four other workers were told they had to
live, under the supervisor's watch.
Anton Soloviov
[ Five foreign workers, including Soloviov, were made to live in this
rented Nanaimo home, with their supervisor. (Anton Soloviov) ]
He said they were told they could work illegally, or pay $500 more for a
work visa.
“He basically told me if you want to work legally, pay me 500 bucks
right now and I will go make the paperwork for you,” said Soloviov, who
chose the legal route.
The written Labour Market Opinion (LMO) issued to the company — which
allowed it to hire foreign workers — said they must be paid $13 an hour
and $21 an hour for any overtime.
'Completely fake'
“It’s completely fake, right. [The employer] just makes the contract
look good in order to get the LMO,” said Soloviov.
To qualify for that permit, rules require the employer must try to find
Canadians for the job first. Soloviov said that of the 50 or so mall
kiosk salespeople working for Mordechai and his wife, not one was Canadian.
“I mean come on…$13 an hour and $21 overtime, working as a retail
salesperson in a mall…I don’t think you’ll have trouble finding [local]
workers for that position,” said Soloviov. “But, if you are not paying
them, that’s a bit of a problem.”
Payroll records show he and others weren’t paid any hourly wages.
[Payroll records for three of the workers show they earned an hourly
salary of $0. During a two week period, this employee put in 116 hours,
but received no pay. (CBC) ]
“After we actually agreed to everything, [Qizel] just said ‘Look guys
you are working on commission. You don’t like it, you can get deported,
I am cancelling your permit,'" said Soloviov.
He said they were told they would get 25 per cent from each sale. The
shock came on paydays, he said, when they received next to nothing. The
employer deducted $225 every two weeks for rent plus other “fines," from
the little pay they were supposed to get.
“If you look at it, it’s modern slavery. Because some people were not
actually paid at all,” said Soloviov. “I got paid 50 bucks or 100 bucks
in the three months I worked and that’s bad exploitation. But some
people were actually slaves and ended up owing him money.”
Soloviov said the fines were deducted arbitrarily for small infractions.
Fined for talking, using phones
“If you were caught just checking your time on your phone, you were
fined $100,” said Soloviov.
“[Qizel] said, ‘I don’t want you speaking to each other, because you are
not making any sales. If I catch you talking, $50 off your paycheque.'”
In one pay period, records show Soloviov and another worker were docked
more for fines than what they earned, leaving them both almost $300 in
debt to their employer after working several 12-hour days.
Soloviov said Qizel also berated them for not selling enough and
constantly threatened them with deportation.
Anton Soloviov
[ Anton Soloviov says foreign workers were constantly threatened with
deportation and fined for talking to each other because that meant they
weren't making sales. (CBC) ]
“His main threat…was ‘I am just going to cancel your work permit that
you paid for and I will call Immigration and they will deport you within
two weeks’.”
Go Public asked Woodgrove Centre Mall, where Soloviov worked, for a
response to this situation.
General manager Mark Fenwick called back and said, "From our
perspective, there is no story here." He indicated the mall considers it
to be a matter for the employees to sort out with their employer.
In December, Soloviov became fed up and looked into his rights in
Canada. He eventually told his supervisor he was going to file a claim
with B.C.’s employment standards branch for unpaid wages.
He said Qizel flew into a rage and trashed the rental home. Soloviov
alleges he also called him on his cellphone and threatened to bring
someone to Nanaimo to kill him.
'Terrified' by threats
“There were direct death threats and physical harm threats. He said, 'If
you open your mouth about any of this, I am going to kill you,'” said
Soloviov.
“The female workers were really terrified and were hiding in their
quarters in the house and that was pretty bad. And he was just rampaging
around the house, throwing chairs, breaking stuff. It wasn’t pretty.”
Soloviov fled immediately to Nanaimo RCMP. While he was at the
detachment, he said he got another call from an unidentified
Hebrew-speaking man who said he was coming to the island by ferry to put
a bullet in his head.
“In Israel, if somebody wants to get you, they will probably get you.
You come with that mentality to this country…so it was pretty bad.”
The call was recorded by police, Soloviov said, and officers then went
to the mall to try to find Qizel, but he’d disappeared.
RCMP confirmed to Go Public that there is still an active, ongoing
investigation into uttering threats.
Immigration authorities have since issued exclusion orders to nine other
Israelis working at the B.C. mall kiosks, requiring them to leave the
country for working illegally or violating the terms of their visa by
working at the wrong mall location.
"The CBSA is aware that some foreign nationals have been circumventing
the legal avenues to work in Canada in a number of industries," said a
spokesperson from the Canada Border Services Agency.
"Those removed in recent years as part of the mall kiosks, have sold a
number of different products including beauty products, radio controlled
toys and electronic cigarettes to name a few items."
Victims punished: lawyer
Toronto-based immigration lawyer Vanessa Routley has been trying to
expose companies that exploit temporary foreign workers. She pointed out
it’s almost always the workers who are punished — not the employers —
which drives workers further underground.
“It's time for Canadians to really ask themselves, are we happy to have
a servant class of people who can't stay permanently, people who toil
for a pittance for years on end and then are asked to leave sometimes
with no warning?” asked Routley.
She suggested the government should give foreign workers who are already
here a path to citizenship and focus on going after bad employers.
[Anton Soloviov posed for this picture with Anna Lepski, general
manager of 0860005 B.C. Ltd, the week he arrived in Canada. The company
is owned by her husband, Dor Mordechai. (Anton Soloviov) ]
“If this truly was human trafficking, if these people are basically
indentured servants who are earning nothing, someone needs to be charged
criminally.”
In question period Monday, as a result of Go Public's inquiries,
Employment Minister Jason Kenney responded to questions from the
Opposition about why the government hasn't acted on complaints it's
known about for months.
"It does point to the need for better information-sharing between law
enforcement agencies so that when one investigation is opened in the
police force, for example, that administrative agencies are made
informed. But Mr. Speaker we take such allegations very seriously and
criminal sanctions are potential in this case," said Kenney.
Two other workers joined Soloviov in filing a complaint with the B.C.
authorities, but they’ve have since gone back to their home countries.
He stayed in a homeless shelter in Nanaimo for weeks and went on social
assistance.
Because of the serious allegations about his employer, the immigration
department then gave him a new open work permit for six months, so he’s
found a new, temporary job.
He said he’s speaking out to warn his countrymen to beware.
“I'm looking to be a citizen — a normal citizen — and not a system
exploiter of some sorts. I do have lots of skills,” said Soloviov. “And
I don't want more young people to come here and get hurt.”
Go Public asked Dor Mordechai, director of the B.C. company that
employed Soloviov, for a response to this story. His lawyer wrote back
that, because of the employment standards complaint, he had no comment.
________________________________________________________
Submit your story ideas:
Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV, radio and the web.
We tell your stories and hold the powers that be accountable.
We want to hear from people across the country with stories they want to
make public.
Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public
Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter