Toor Vineyards in British Columbia has been permanently banned from hiring temporary foreign workers due to repeated violations of the program.
A British Columbia organization that helps migrant workers says it’s been repeatedly contacted by employees of a winery in the Okanagan Valley that has been permanently banned from hiring temporary foreign workers and fined $118,000 for breaking program rules. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a Dec. 16 ruling that Toor Vineyards was banned for not putting in enough effort to protect workers from physical, sexual, psychological or financial abuse, or from reprisal.
It also said Toor Vineyards failed to provide requested documents, and that pay and working conditions didn’t live up to what was promised to the foreign workers. Raul Gatica, the founder of Dignidad Migrante Society, said a “minimum of five, six” workers at the winery had reached out to his organization for help in recent years. Gatica said at least one of the workers wanted advice after suffering sexual abuse. “We say, ‘you know that is a crime thing, so you have to go to the police,’” said Gatica, who added that police were told of the allegations. RCMP declined to comment on the allegation. Among hundreds of employers penalized for foreign-worker breaches listed on a government department database, Toor Vineyards is one of only two where a permanent hiring ban has been imposed. Toor Vineyards shares the same address as the award-winning Desert Hills Estate Winery, whose president Randhir Toor stepped down about a year ago. In 2023, Desert Hills was fined $16,000 for breaching foreign worker rules, while in 2022, Toor Vineyards was convicted of seven charges of counselling or attempting to counsel misrepresentation in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The department’s database lists that fine as unpaid. Gatica said that while he was pleased by the latest fine and ban, and that “finally the federal government was doing something,” he doubted whether the new penalty would be pai
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