New complaints target the Villa Mon Domaine seniors’ residence concerning temporary African workers who worked as orderlies for months without being paid. In their complaints of human trafficking, the two women even indicate that they were asked to disappear in the run-up to a visit by Immigration Canada investigators.
“They wanted us to hide. It’s as if they wanted to forget us. Marie and Lindsay (names fictitious) had been working as volunteers at Villa Mon Domaine for six and eight months respectively as attendants when their manager at the residence asked them to leave the premises. “It was a bit shady because they said, ‘We have to leave the house.’ The two days when there will be inspection, we must not be there, ”says Lindsay.
According to our information, the Lévis seniors’ residence had been notified by the federal government that Immigration Canada inspectors were going to visit its facilities.
Tears rolled down the cheeks of the two women as they told their story to the To have to. “We worked, we worked without setting conditions. “All we wanted was to get our work permit. But the work permit was never issued to them.
The duty had already reported in March that Villa Mon Domaine was the target of a series of complaints for its way of treating temporary workers and for its use of volunteer beneficiary attendants. The owners of the residence, Éric Simard and Natacha Gauthier, had denied all the allegations and affirmed that the workers they recruited did “only a day or two” of volunteering per week, “at their convenience, when they want to come “.
Relaunched this week, the bosses of Villa Mon Domaine have returned The duty to a lawyer who would not comment on the new allegations. “To our knowledge, these complaints have not been brought to the Villa’s attention. We do not know what treatment was made of them in the government or even if they were withheld, ”wrote Me Pascal Girard.
No volunteering, no license
Following the publication of the article, the Minister of Labor of Quebec, Jean Boulet, had ordered an investigation by the Commission for standards, equity, health and safety at work ( CNESST) and the federal government had indicated that an investigation was underway on the residence.
Marie and Lindsay had not participated in the first report of the To have to. Their testimonies are therefore added to the six other cases identified during our investigation. The two women claim that between March and October 2021, they volunteered full-time to do the work of attendants and housekeeping. The residence houses them in the windowless basement of an apartment building located near the facilities with other workers. Every week, Villa Mon Domaine gave them $200 in cash for groceries.
“We worked like the others [qui sont salariés]. Sometimes more than others,” says Marie. “When the others are not there, we are called because we have to replace them. Marie worked from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Lindsay worked the evening shift, until midnight.
Villa Mon Domaine hosts 63 residents, most of whom are very heavy cases.
“I was doing 22 overnights,” recalls Lindsay. It involves washing the residents, putting them in their pajamas, putting them in nightgowns and putting them to bed. We had ten minutes per person and then we had to do the laundry. Sometimes you have to run because you have to finish your night shifts. »
In their complaints to Immigration Canada, the two women claim to have been victims of blackmail. “The employer threatened to interrupt the process [d’immigration] every time we complained about our condition”, can we read in that of Marie. “When I asked why I had to work 8:30 a.m. shifts, when other Quebec workers could work the regular 8:00 a.m. day, I was threatened with interrupting the process for my work permit if I refused to do so. »
Company hours obtained by The duty clearly show that Marie and Lindsay were working full time from May to October 2021 and from March to October 2021 respectively.
It is not uncommon for them to have been on the schedule for six consecutive days, therefore the weekend. However, in the timetable coinciding with the visit of the inspectors, their names are replaced by that of one of their superiors and by the expression “To be replaced”.
Four people working in the residence at the same time also confirmed to the To have to that Marie and Lindsay were then working full time, like the others. This is particularly the case for Martine Rodrigue, who worked at Villa Mon Domaine as an attendant for a year before enrolling in Legault government training in the fall of 2021. “I worked two-person shifts with Lindsay and with Marie, told the To have to Mme Rodrigo. They were there for several months. »
In addition, Lindsay has in her possession a document from April 2021, signed by the director of the residence, so that she can circulate in the streets at night during the curfew. She is described there as a “volunteer with the elderly”.
“Victims of trafficking”
Originally from the Ivory Coast, Marie is a young grandmother in her fifties. She arrived in February 2020 in Quebec with a visitor’s permit in order to see her daughter and son, who are permanent residents, and her three grandchildren. Held back in the country by the pandemic, she decided to take steps to obtain a work permit and possibly settle here permanently with her family. She prefers to remain anonymous for fear of harming her chances of being hired elsewhere.
Lindsay, who requested anonymity for the same reasons, is from Cameroon. She crossed the Atlantic and left her children behind to come see her sister and her mother who live in Quebec. The health care his mother received when she fell seriously ill convinced her to come and settle here.
The two women say they were put in touch with Villa Mon Domaine by a Quebec immigration lawyer, whom they had contacted to help them in their efforts to obtain a work permit.
In March, the owners of the residence had declared to the To have to that this lawyer was in charge of processing the immigration files of their temporary workers.
” He [l’avocat] said he knew employers who could give me the work permit, explains Marie. He told me to do the training in PDSB [une formation pour les préposés] and CPR [cours de réanimation cardiorespiratoire] and that he would put me in contact with them [la Villa Mon Domaine] since they need staff. »
Once the training is complete, the lawyer directs her to the residence. ” He [l’avocat] told me that it was voluntary work that we had to do. On the spot, she notices that other Ivorian workers have their work permits. “So I thought it’s possible. “They said it was volunteer work. But, like me, I don’t know the laws here, how it goes here, I started to work. […] I don’t know the difference between full time, part time and volunteering, I don’t know all that. Me, my goal was to get the work permit. »
According to a document obtained by The dutyImmigration Canada did not acknowledge receipt of the work permit application until July 13, 2021. The two women had been volunteering for months by then.
Between April and October, they remind the lawyer regularly about the permit. Until they were asked to leave the premises on October 20 and 21 for the visit of inspectors from Ottawa. Marie and Lindsay then understand that something is wrong. They decide to return to their family members residing in Quebec, while waiting for their permit – still pending – to be issued.
But everything collapses shortly after the publication of the report of the To have to on the other victims. “I was contacted by the lawyer, who told me that, following the media release and the reopening of an investigation into Villa Mon Domaine, the steps to obtain [d’un permis de travail] were interrupted, that he could do nothing more for me and that after this story, it would become impossible for me to obtain a work permit from a visitor’s visa”, writes Lindsay in her complaint for trafficking person filed at the end of May with the federal government.
With the help of the Center for Immigrant Workers (CTI), the two women applied for a “temporary residence permit”. But this request was rejected. In its response, Immigration Canada writes that “the evidence” is “insufficient” to show that they were victims of human trafficking. The agent who processed the application also criticizes them for having agreed to work before obtaining a permit. “You could have benefited from the support and accommodation of your family members in Canada […] if you needed it while your work permit application is being processed,” reads the response to Marie’s request. Same thing for Lindsay.
Above all, Immigration Canada emphasizes in bold letters that they risk being forced to leave Canada because their temporary resident status has expired.
Four offenses
Speaking at the CTI, Raphaël Laflamme finds it difficult to explain why the federal government rejected Marie and Lindsay’s requests. What they experienced meets “all the criteria for human trafficking,” he says. They are treated as “if they had worked on the black market, which ignores the fact that there was a form of constraint and that they were in a situation of exploitation”.
As reported The duty in March, several other workers of African descent received open work permits for vulnerable people after filing complaints against the Lévis residence. These permits ensure that they are no longer captive to this employer and that they can work in other establishments. They have all been hired elsewhere, mainly in the health network.
According to our information, the federal government, which manages the temporary worker program, did not impose any sanctions on Villa Mon Domaine following the first investigation published by The duty.
At the time, the two federal departments responsible for temporary workers (Immigration and Employment and Social Development) had told the To have to that an investigation was underway. “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the allegations made in Lévis,” said a spokeswoman for Immigration Canada. Relaunched this week, the two ministries indicated that the investigation was still ongoing, but that they could not comment on “specific cases” in order to “protect personal information”.
Moreover, they never answered our questions on the relevance of notifying employers that investigators will come to visit them.
As for the investigation launched by the CNESST on the Quebec side, it led to the filing of four statements of offense against the residence last May. The government agency criticizes the Villa Mon Domaine for not having declared the hours worked by one of its employees during a period of eight months.
He also accuses him of having made illegal deductions from a worker’s salary for five months, as well as of having prevented an employee from benefiting from all of her maternity leave.
Finally, the residence allegedly failed to give a worker her pay slip for 14 months. Villa Mon Domaine is liable to a fine of $600 to $1,200 for each of these offences. The owners having pleaded not guilty, the case will be heard by a judge of the Court of Quebec on September 26.