![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Three restaurant owners who financially abused their immigrant employees were handed jail terms this week by a Calgary judge.<\/p>\n
The offenders \u2014 Manikandan Kasinathan, Chandramohan Marjak and Mary Roche \u2014 were each sentenced to 90-day jail terms, to be served on weekends, after they were convicted of fraud over $5,000.<\/p>\n
Kasinathan, Marjak and Roche, who co-owned Marina Dosa and Tandoori Grill in Calgary, will also be placed on 18-months probation and must pay back the $44,000 they stole from three employees.<\/p>\n
The sentences follow a piecemeal trial that began in the summer of 2024 and wrapped up in May 2025 with the conviction decision by Justice Sandra Mah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Victims threatened<\/p>\n
The victims, all from India, moved to Calgary between 2017 and 2020 as temporary foreign workers on employer-specific permits to work as cooks at the offenders\u2019 restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once here, the victims were told they had to pay $24,000 each for a Labour Market Impact Assessment \u201cfor government fees relating to their immigration to Canada,\u201d according to Mah\u2019s conviction decision.<\/p>\n
In reality,\u00a0under the temporary foreign workers program, employers were required to pay a $1,000 processing fee for an employee’s assessment documentation.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Brandy O\u2019Ferrall presented evidence that all of the men were told that if they did not pay the money, they would be sent back to India.\u00a0<\/p>\n
14-hour days<\/p>\n
One of the victims, Parthiban Ramalingam, paid the full $24,000 while the other two paid\u00a0$12,000 and $8,000 each.<\/p>\n
Mah heard that on paydays, Kasinathan drove Ramalingam to his bank to deposit his paycheque.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramalingam told the court that he would hand over $2,000 in cash for the Labour Market Impact Assessment and $400 for rent.<\/p>\n
Kasinathan would then drive Ramalingam to the restaurant to work.<\/p>\n
It took Ramalingam about a year of working six days a week for 12 to 14 hours per day to pay off the $24,000.<\/p>\n
‘Substandard’ conditions<\/p>\n
The victims also lived in the homes of the three offenders, paying them rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The accommodations provided by Kasinathan and Marjak were described by the judge as \u201csubstandard,\u201d with one of the employees living in a bedroom with two others.<\/p>\n
Mah found that the victims were also \u201cverbally and physically abused by the accused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venkatesan Durairaj testified that he worked in many other countries, but Mah noted \u201cthis was the first place he felt like a slave and he felt abused.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victims ultimately reported the abuse to authorities.<\/p>\n
None of the accused testified in their own defence. Their lawyers argued that their clients did not ask for nor receive any money from the complainants for a Labour Market Impact Assessment, and that if any money was paid, it was repayment for expenses such as rent, food, airline tickets, travel or loans.<\/p>\n
The judge rejected the defence put forward by lawyers Faizan Butt and Sofian Butt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":498481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-498480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115852849119388655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}