43 Mexicans freed from slavery in Canada

[MANUELF]

English source.

CBC News: Police in Ontario free 43 Mexicans brought to Canada by alleged human traffickers

Ontario Provincial Police say they have freed 43 modern-day slaves brought to Canada from Mexico by alleged human traffickers and forced to work as cleaners at hotels.​

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The 43, mostly men aged 20 to 46, were coached on what to say when they entered Canada, lived in "squalid" conditions in Barrie and Wasaga Beach, and were transported to hotel and vacation properties in Central and Eastern Ontario to work, police said on Monday.​

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All were freed last Tuesday following a joint investigation that involved the OPP, Barrie Police Service and Canada Border Services Agency.​

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"Human trafficking is modern-day slavery," OPP Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum told reporters in Barrie. "Exploitation is the key element of this offence."​

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Police said the traffickers allegedly controlled the pay made by the workers. The victims had paid the traffickers large amounts of money to leave Mexico and were charged fees for transportation and lodgings.​

​

The Mexicans worked at locations in Collingwood, Innisfil, Oro-Medonte and Cornwall, Ont., police said.​

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In some cases, police said the Mexicans, after paying various fees, were left with less than $50 a month.​

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One victim reportedly told investigators: "Last night, I went to bed a slave. This morning, I woke up a free man."​

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The alleged traffickers have not been arrested or charged.​

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A number of sources told police last year that a Barrie-based cleaning company, run by two people, was trafficking and defrauding the Mexican-born workers.​

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The Mexicans had been brought to Canada "under the pretense" of being here for educational purposes or the promise of work visas and eventually permanent residency status.​

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Barnum added the workers are now here legally. Since they were rescued, they have been offered legal work and accommodations at a Barrie-area resort, Barrie police said.​

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Twelve search warrants were executed last Tuesday in Barrie and Wasaga Beach, six involving residences and six involving vehicles, police say. About 250 police officers were involved. Investigators are digging into the background of the "two people" who ran the cleaning company but they have not been charged.​

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More in the link.

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Link in spanish: https://www.sdpnoticias.com/interna...-43-mexicanos-que-eran-esclavizados-en-canada

Here is a photo of where they slept

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Damn. That's crazy. I knew it happens but you don't think of it often.

 

[inner-G]

That's so nuts it sounds like some scheme Frank from Shameless would come up with. It's crazy that shit happens IRL today in North America

 

[Not a Horse]

Unfortunately, this seems quite common.

There was a couple in Alberta initially charged with human trafficking based on the way they treated temporary foreign workers. They got off with a slap on the wrist.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3443934/...uple-charged-with-human-trafficking-at-hotel/

The couple charged the workers $400 each per month for a room and sometimes there were four people living in one room, according to facts the provincial judge read in court on Thursday. The Sidhus only paid each worker $10 an hour, and $7.50 an hour for overtime worked, the judge said.
Court heard one of the workers had to do jobs at the Sidhus' farm, which was not part of their contract. A social function was also worked, during which time the employees were paid $50 for eight hours of work.
During his sentencing, Provincial Court Judge D.J. Plosz called the treatment of the workers "shameful" and "despicable." Plosz said the couple used the workers for cheap labour to make money for themselves.

Click to shrink...

It has only been very very recently that employers started being blacklisted from the TFW program.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...ices/work-canada/employers-non-compliant.html

The most serious cases only receive a 2 year ban and don't even make the news.

Even many of the compliant companies are taking advantage of both the foreign labour by using their skills at a discount with a very hard path to permanent residency, and the local labour market by using TFWs to suppress wages.

If you see a job listed on the Canadian job bank with unrealistic requirements such as Chinese fluency for manual labour or 5 years experience in coding languages that haven't been around 5 years, report that shit.

The TFW program needs to be scrapped, but has support of both Liberals and Conservatives. If their skills are important to us, they deserve to build a life here doing it. If the positions they fill are so in demand, they should be treated and paid as skilled positions, which may attract locals to them. As it stands, they allow jobs to pay less than a living wage so nobody here takes them, which leads to exploitation of people from poorer countries.

 

[Buzzman]

Shit, maybe there should be a wall. Mexicans aren't safe across the border.

 

[Snack12367]

This is really common in Europe. I think the numbers of Modern Slavery in Europe are shocking.

 

[cameron]

English source.

CBC News: Police in Ontario free 43 Mexicans brought to Canada by alleged human traffickers

Ontario Provincial Police say they have freed 43 modern-day slaves brought to Canada from Mexico by alleged human traffickers and forced to work as cleaners at hotels.​

​

The 43, mostly men aged 20 to 46, were coached on what to say when they entered Canada, lived in "squalid" conditions in Barrie and Wasaga Beach, and were transported to hotel and vacation properties in Central and Eastern Ontario to work, police said on Monday.​

​

All were freed last Tuesday following a joint investigation that involved the OPP, Barrie Police Service and Canada Border Services Agency.​

​

"Human trafficking is modern-day slavery," OPP Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum told reporters in Barrie. "Exploitation is the key element of this offence."​

​

Police said the traffickers allegedly controlled the pay made by the workers. The victims had paid the traffickers large amounts of money to leave Mexico and were charged fees for transportation and lodgings.​

​

The Mexicans worked at locations in Collingwood, Innisfil, Oro-Medonte and Cornwall, Ont., police said.​

​

In some cases, police said the Mexicans, after paying various fees, were left with less than $50 a month.​

​

------------------------​

​

One victim reportedly told investigators: "Last night, I went to bed a slave. This morning, I woke up a free man."​

​

The alleged traffickers have not been arrested or charged.​

​

A number of sources told police last year that a Barrie-based cleaning company, run by two people, was trafficking and defrauding the Mexican-born workers.​

​

------------------------​

​

The Mexicans had been brought to Canada "under the pretense" of being here for educational purposes or the promise of work visas and eventually permanent residency status.​

​

Barnum added the workers are now here legally. Since they were rescued, they have been offered legal work and accommodations at a Barrie-area resort, Barrie police said.​

​

Twelve search warrants were executed last Tuesday in Barrie and Wasaga Beach, six involving residences and six involving vehicles, police say. About 250 police officers were involved. Investigators are digging into the background of the "two people" who ran the cleaning company but they have not been charged.​

​

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More in the link.

 

[Mozendo]

Unfortunately, this seems quite common.

There was a couple in Alberta initially charged with human trafficking based on the way they treated temporary foreign workers. They got off with a slap on the wrist.

Click to shrink...

Girlfriend workers in the TFW program and some of the stories she tells me are just absurd.
Most recent one was a woman who applied wanted foreign workers for her daughter to get a personal tutor (or something), but the responsibilities were ridiculous. For example she wanted this "teacher" to work weekends and something like the employee would have to wait for hours even after their shift was done if no one was at home to take care of the client which included cooking and cleaning.

It's clear that she wanted a caregiver, and in fact the woman applied for a caregiver a few years back. The are two different applications the woman wanted to cheap out this time around.

Another story was a truck company that submitted two different TFW applications citing that they were two different companies at the same location paying different wages for the exact same position, either that or they were also looking for Canadian workers but were paying TFWs less.
Honestly fuck these people.

 

[HomokHarcos]

Not shocked, but many Canadians will be in denial and act like stuff like that don't happen here.

 

[MANUELF]

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More in the link.

Click to shrink...

Thanks, added to the OP

 

[Deleted member 41520]

Slavery has only become a bigger problem worldwide since the abolishment of the Western slave trade.

This story is horrific but on a global scale it's a drop in the ocean.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

Why haven't the slave owners been charged yet?

 

[Baccus]

... did I wake up in 1650 today?

 

[Brinbe]

sickening... glad they were freed from that bullshit

 

[Deleted member 21709]

So do we know the businesses that enslaved them? Shut them all down.

 

[Necromanti]

Stories like these are extremely common throughout the world, though you'd certainly not expect it in Canada.

 

[Nephtis]

"The Mexicans"? Call them what they are -- victims.

 

[skipgo]

If this still happens in Canada... there's a lot we don't know in less developed countries for sure.