Alberta human trafficking case involving Varinder and Ravinder Sidhu adjourned to June 30

 

HEADLINES RED DEER INNAlleged abuse of eight temporary foreign workers

 

THE human trafficking case involving Varinder Sidhu, 49, and Ravinder Sidhu, 46, of Red Deer, Alberta, was on Tuesday adjourned to June 30 as the defence counsel for the married couple asked Red Deer Provincial Court Judge James Glass for more time to review the lengthy disclosure.

On April 3, Calgary Federal Serious Organized Crime officers completed a 10-month investigation of a human trafficking case, which resulted in investigators charging the couple under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

The Sidhus were charged with:

* Organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion.

* Employ a foreign national in a capacity in which the foreign national is not authorized under this Act to be employed.

* Counsel, induce, aid or abet or attempts to counsel, aid or abet any person to directly or indirectly misrepresent or withhold material facts relating to a relevant matter that induces or could induce an error in the administration of this Act is guilty of an offence.

The investigation began in June 2014, when Alberta Employment Standards contacted RCMP which led to a joint-investigation into the alleged abuse of eight temporary foreign workers employed at Econolodge – Gasoline Alley of Red Deer.

“Human Traffickers exploit the most vulnerable people in society such, as migrant workers, and they prey on despair and desperation,” said Inspector Darcy Fleury, Officer in Charge of the Alberta RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime in Calgary, in April. “Our collaboration with Alberta Employment Standards was instrumental in this investigation.”