Fil-Canadian gets jail time, must pay back wages for trafficking

Canadian Border Services agents raided a print shop that employed Jennilyn Morris’ trafficked workers. CBSA WEBSITE

SAN FRANCISCO – A Filipina Canadian businesswoman in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on May 20 was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to pay back stolen wages to more than 70 foreign workers she trafficked.

Jennilyn Morris, 46, pleaded guilty to two labor trafficking charges last February, making her the first person in Alberta to be charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, according to a report by CBC News.

At least 68 of her workers were foreign nationals whom she employed illegally; they either had visitor visas, or work permits for other employers, according to court records.

A live-in caregiver when she came to Canada in 1998, Morris eventually owned Smokey Joe’s Hickory Smoke House and Demot Cleaning Inc., which provided cleaning and kitchen staff to hotels. She also sent her Demot employees to work at Webco Printing. A Canada Border Services raid on Webco uncovered the trafficking.

Morris’ employees worked 14 to 16 hours a day for less than the $10.20 minimum wage, at $9 per hour; those farmed out to Webco were paid $8 per hour. She also rented out housing space to her workers sleeping up to five people to a bed or slept on the floor. Some were charged $20 for a blanket.

Morris also brought three people from the Philippines, charging them the cost of paper work and airfare and misleading them about their work contracts and conditions.
Justice Ken Nielsen heard impact statements from 28 victims, and noted Morris’ “lack of remorse.” He sentenced Morris to two and half years in prison and ordered her to pay back $22,000 to some of her workers.

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