A van stops in front of a series of buildings in Cowansville.
It is here, in a modest apartment complex on Rue des Érables, that William Humberto Garcia Castillo is said to have lived briefly, whose misadventures triggered an investigation by the Commission on Standards, Equity, Health and of work safety (CNESST), in 2022.
The man behind the wheel calls out to us. He asks what “job” we are looking for.
“I’m looking for a Mr. Garcia,” he was told.
— I thought you were looking for workers to work.
– For what ? Do you have people?
– Yes […]. For what job ? »
After this brief exchange, the driver continues on his way without identifying himself.
Inside, no one answered the door of Mr. Garcia Castillo’s former home when we visited at the end of October.
During an interview carried out by the CNESST in the summer of 2022, the temporary foreign worker (TET) indicated that “he would have noted the presence of 15 to 20 migrants of different nationalities who are in the same situation as him and who work illegally via the Travailleurs.ca agency. They all have to pay for accommodation and the costs associated with this placement agency.”
This is what an affidavit in support of a search warrant written by the CNESST investigator relates. who met Mr. Garcia Castillo at the airport.
The allegations contained in this public court document from February 2023 have not been tested in court.
On the other hand, the CNESST indicated that on October 25, 2023, two permit “revocation decisions” were sent to the agency, with “immediate effect”. An extremely rare gesture.
“As of this date, the agency can no longer carry out personnel placement or TET recruitment activities,” indicated the CNESST in a written statement that it sent to us.
Since 1er January 2020, all companies that offer personnel placement or TET recruitment services must hold a permit issued by the CNESST to carry out their activities in Quebec.
917
Number of temporary foreign worker recruitment agency permit holders registered in the CNESST online register
2377
Number of personnel placement agency permit holders registered in the CNESST online register
Source: CNESST
Please note that some permits have not been renewed or are suspended.
The shareholders of the Travailleurs.ca agency – whose head office is located in a cabinet factory in Saint-Pie, in Montérégie – did not respond to questions from The Press.
“We are not aware of the existence of a legal file alleging your various points,” indicated its president Martin Paquette, by email on November 7. “Under the circumstances, we cannot provide answers to your questions before being able to consult the said documents. »
Fired
The Press was not able to find Mr. Garcia Castillo, but we know that his story begins in March 2022. Mr. Garcia Castillo then arrives in Quebec with a closed work permit which authorizes him to work for a single employer in Canada: the poultry catching company Équipe Sarrazin in Granby.
He was fired at the end of April for having behaved inappropriately and aggressively towards his colleagues, said both his former employer and his union, the United Food and Commercial Workers.
“He was a person who had attitude problems and who threatened everyone in the apartments,” said Michel Beaudin, vice-president of Équipe Sarrazin, a company that captures more than a third of the poultry slaughtered. in Quebec. The work of its TET teams consists of grabbing chickens or turkeys with their hands to put them in cages before being transported by truck to the slaughterhouse.
On April 29, the day he was scheduled to leave for Guatemala, a vehicle came by to take Mr. Garcia Castillo to the airport. “When we went to look for him, he was no longer there. Friends told us: ‘He pushed himself,’” recalls Mr. Beaudin. “We bought our ticket [d’avion] and he ran away,” he added.
At the time, Michel Beaudin did not pay much attention to it. Since 2006, he estimates that between 150 and 200 TFWs hired by Équipe Sarrazin have disappeared into thin air, sometimes several dozen at a time. “You must have heard of coyotes?” “, he says, explaining that smugglers help TFWs cross the American border.
However, he says he has never heard of the Travailleurs.ca recruitment agency.
Three months later, the Guatemalan consulate general received a call from an information officer at the airport. William Humberto Garcia Castillo wants to go home.