No.
Evidence of meeting #16 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was asked.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #16 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was asked.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Maurizio Bevilacqua Liberal Vaughan, ON
Typically, were you paid by Ms. Taniguchi, or the members of the Dhalla family? Did you sign a contract with the agency, or with the Dhalla family?
Conservative
Attorney, As an Individual
I'm sorry, Mr. Bevilacqua, would you remind stating the question again? Perhaps we could have one question at a time.
Liberal
Maurizio Bevilacqua Liberal Vaughan, ON
Typically, were you paid by Ms. Taniguchi or by members of the Dhalla family, and did you sign a contract with the agency, or with the Dhalla family?
Member, Caregivers Support Services
I never signed a contract with the agency, neither with the Dhalla family.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Thank you very much, Mr. Bevilacqua.
Monsieur St-Cyr is going to ask some questions. Before he does, I'd like to say a couple of things to your clients, Mr. Sinclair.
Contrary to what I said, I have now been informed that the clerk did receive your brief yesterday from Ms. Velasco at 2:14 p.m. The problem is that it's in translation; once translated, it will be circulated to the membership. We did get it, but we got it in just one of the two official languages.
Finally, I'm sorry I had to cut your clients off. We have a time problem here.
Mr. Sinclair, when your clients were making full statements, I cut them off. If you could make those statements available to the clerk, it would be appreciated. He will distribute that information to the members of the committee.
Go ahead, Mr. Sinclair.
Conservative
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wish to thank the witnesses for being here today.
I would first like to clarify one thing: who was the employer in this story? According to you, if I understand correctly, you had the hiring interview with Ms. Ruby Dhalla and basically you took orders from her. Is that right
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Therefore, it was clear to you that the employer was Ms. Ruby Dhalla. When you were asked what sort of work you did, who your employer was, for you, your employer was always Ms. Ruby Dhalla.
Member, Caregivers Support Services
When I was interviewed by Ruby Dhalla in their house, she was always addressing me that, “I will sponsor you”.
Neil Dhalla was never introduced to me as my employer. And Neil Dhalla never had a direct transaction with me or with Akemi, the agency. So in my mind, Ruby Dhalla was my employer because she was the one who interviewed me, and she was the one who hired me, and she was the one who supervised me, and I never had any conversation with Neil Dhalla.
Member, Caregivers Support Services
It was April 14, 2008, when I asked Ruby Dhalla, “Who will sponsor me?” She said, “I will sponsor you”, and she called Akemi Taniguchi. They did it together with Akemi Taniguchi on the phone line, and Ruby Dhalla was filling out the papers. She told me, “I have the full....” She was naming the sponsorship because he has lots of business. And she said to me, “You will be sponsored immediately. Is that right, sweetie? Now cheer up.”
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Regarding pay, I have had some trouble keeping everything straight. So that I can finally understand properly, were you paid, at least in part, for the work that was done? If so, what form of payment was used?
Member, Caregivers Support Services
I quit on February 21. After quitting, she started to yell at me. I was asking Ruby Dhalla to please give me my salary, but she said, “I am not going to give you your salary now, because I have to talk to Akemi. Also, your salary is not enough to pay for the ticket of my mother, because my mother was already scheduled to go to Winnipeg.”
I said, “What is the connection between my salary and the plane ticket of your mother? I worked hard for this money.” She said, “I'm not going to give it to you.” But after threatening.... I kept on trying to come back—two times—to get my salary, but she never gave it to me until the taxi driver helped me get it through another official called Khalid. Khalid intervened and called the office of Ruby Dhalla. After one month, on March 24, Tavinder met me at the MacDonald's at Square One and gave me $400.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I must interrupt you because we don't have much time. I simply want to know whether you received any pay at all. If so, how much did you receive and how was it paid to you? Was it by cheque, direct deposit, credit card or whatever?
Member, Caregivers Support Services
I was receiving money every 15th and 30th of the month from Madame Tavinder. I had to sign the receipt before she would give it to me.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
That's fine. So it was cash in both cases. In the second case, I didn't understand. In all, that came to more or less how much money?