Labrador whistleblower, facing deportation order, returns to Philippines
Arthur Lorenzo left Canada Thursday night as deportation order was set to take affect
A temporary foreign worker whose complaint started a Canada Border Services Agency investigation into alleged violations of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program in Labrador City has left the country, according to a migrant worker activist group.
Arthur Lorenzo left for the Philippines Thursday night as his deportation order was set to take effect, Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer with Justice for Migrant Workers told CBC News.
- CBSA investigates claim 26 foreign workers were forced to share home
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Labrador whistleblower's 'heart is broken,' faces deportation
Lorenzo applied for a number of permits to stay in Canada, including a temporary resident permit for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (VTIP), as well as a temporary resident permit and an open work permit.
An immigration officer denied his application, according to court documents, and a judge dismissed Lorenzo's request for judicial review, meaning the immigration officer's ruling stands.
Company suspended from program
Lorenzo and his former co-workers told CBC News in early 2014 that his employer, which owned a Jungle Jim's restaurant franchise in Labrador City, forced 26 migrant workers to share a split-level house for months.
That would be a violation of the employer's agreement with the federal government.
However, no charges were laid by the border services agency and the owner denied any wrongdoing.
Shortly after Lorenzo and his co-workers went public with their complaints their former employers were suspended from the Temporary Foreign Worker's Program
The government suspended the owner's application in April of 2013, citing "reasonable grounds to suspect that the employer or group of employers provided false, misleading or inaccurate information in the context of the request for that opinion."
A senior source with knowledge of the suspension told CBC News the applications were halted because of an investigation launched by the border agency months earlier.