Families come to Brandon on empty promise of jobs

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This article was published 03/08/2019 (2434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three families from the Bahamas who are living in Brandon allege they and two other families were defrauded of thousands of dollars after coming to Canada on the promise of jobs.

Peter Bassey Chukwu said his family and the others, one of which is from Jamaica, were lured to Canada by a woman named Marcia Allen of Facts Global Care — Canada One Five Zero, who secured thousands of dollars from each family on the premise of providing employment in Canada through closed work permits.

Unlike an open work permit that allows the holder to work in any position for any employer in Canada for the length of time stated on the document, closed work permits — also known as employer-specific work permits — limit the holder to working for a specific employer in a specific position for the duration of the work permit.

“Everything she had promised, nothing was there,” Chukwu said Thursday.

Chukwu’s wife, Eunice Uchechi Peter Bassey, who received a closed work permit, brought her husband and daughter, Johanna, to Canada, while Chuckwu’s brother-in-law, Kingsley Chibueze Agbaeze, received a closed work permit so he could bring his wife Joyce Uzunma Kingsley to Canada.

Bibiana Uwaoma Nwaozor, meanwhile, received a closed permit to enable her to bring her husband Titus Chukwu Nwaozor (no relation to Peter Chukwu) and their three children.

Agbaeze said they met Allen at a hotel in the Bahamas in early March 2018, where she was doing a presentation.

He said she promised to provide them with jobs and guide them through the process of securing the work permits.

“Canada has been our dream place,” Chukwu said, adding they wanted to make a better life for their children. “We had been looking for an opportunity to come here.”

Chukwu said Eunice paid Allen US$4,000 for a permanent residency application, in addition to more than $600 in registration and other fees.

An invoice from Canada Global Care in Vaughan, Ont., for a permanent residency application dated Aug. 7, 2018 shows an amount of US$4,000, with US$1,500 still owing.

Canada Global Care appears on the same document as Facts Global Care.

Bibiana Nwaozor paid Allen approximately $9,000 in total.

Sitting together in the living room of Chukwu’s apartment in the same building in Brandon where they all live, Chukwu said the families paid their own airfare to Halifax via Toronto out of their own pockets, arriving in Canada in mid-December. He said they met Allen in Toronto, who told them they would have to move to Brandon because Allen had to relocate her company. They then went on to Halifax where they stayed at a hotel for four nights before flying to Brandon via Calgary, Chukwu said.

Once again paying their own airfare, they arrived in Brandon on Dec. 21, where they were “stranded” for 15 days in a hotel before finding apartments in the city.

They continued to be in contact with Allen until May, Chukwu said, after which they were unable to reach her.

One of the five families is now in Winnipeg, while another returned to Halifax.

“She (Allen) was the only contact we had in Canada, then,” Chukwu said.

“For eight months they (his wife, Kingsley Agbaeze and Bibiana Nwaozor) have been sitting at home, unable to work for any person,” Chukwu said. “Our permit doesn’t allow them to work for any other employer.”

Chukwu, Joyce Kingsley and Titus Nwaozor now have open work permits, while the others have now applied for them.

Chukwu works for Doctors on Call as a support care worker, while Agbaeze’s wife does cleaning.

Peter Bassey and Nwaozor were both nurses in the Bahamas, while Chukwu and Agbaeze taught in the same high school.

A document Allen sent Jan. 24, 2019, to Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living, insured benefits branch, regarding Peter Bassey’s application for Manitoba health cards, noted Peter Bassey had been employed in a work permit for Canada since Jan. 2, 2019.

She wrote, “Mrs. Peter Bassey’s work permit was initially approved for Halifax, Nova Scotia, however we have moved our company to Manitoba owing to the fast application process for Provincial Nominations for Permanent Residence in the province of Manitoba.

“Mrs. Peter Bassey will be working on our First Nations project out of our location in Brandon, Manitoba.”

In an email to a few clients, including Bassey, dated May 29, 2019, Allen wrote in part: “This letter is to inform you that the organization is no longer able to operate as a corporation.”

It goes on to say, “In March of this year I informed you that the organization was encountering difficulties in gathering the funds that were already approved. However, owing to the challenges in continuing to secure funding and other changes, the corporation has been restructured.”

“Please note that as of June 30, 2019, the company can no longer employ you. As you were also aware, I asked you to return to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Home Instead and Comfort Keepers agreed to employ you, once you return to Halifax.”

Allen noted a copy of the letter was to be sent to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, “advising that the corporation is not in a position to provide employment and all options have been exhausted. … This is a new project and that was explained to you in the beginning.”

A search on the Manitoba government’s Companies Office website, however, indicates Facts Global Care is still active and compliant.

Chukwu said they would have liked to return to Halifax, but they could not afford the airfare and they had already signed leases on their apartments. At any rate, there would not have been any jobs waiting for them in Halifax, he said.

Chukwu alleges that in March 2019, Allen asked Peter Bassey to work for Comfort Keepers or Home Instead and pay her out of the wages Allen would receive from the companies. He said his wife refused as that would breach her closed work permit.

Allen could not be reached for comment Friday on the phone numbers and email addresses listed on documents Chukwu provided to The Sun. One number in Halifax belongs to a firm that rents office space. However, the person who answered the phone said she did not know Allen.

Chukwu said they do not have health insurance nor does anyone in the affected families have permanent residency status.

He said they have exhausted all avenues looking for help, including Westman Immigrant Services, police and Legal Aid.

Going back to the Bahamas is not an option, he said, adding they gave up their jobs to come to Canada, and there is no turning back now.

A spokesman for Brandon-Souris member of Parliament Larry Maguire said the minister is aware of the situation and brought the issue up at a committee meeting in Ottawa.

“Basically, we told the (immigration) minister’s office, point blank, this looks like fraud,” said the spokesman, who would only speak on condition of anonymity to provide background information.

The spokesman said the families had originally come to Canada through the Atlantic Canadian Immigration Pilot Project, a Liberal experiment in which companies in Atlantic Canada apply to the provincial government to be recognized as a company that can bring in immigrants through the program, eliminating the need for a labour-market impact assessment.

“This was trying to find a way to streamline the process, and they (applicants) actually have a pathway to permanent residency,” the spokesman said.

The fact the families were then sent to Brandon should have raised red flags, he said, adding they are trying to get the families’ work permits changed to allow them to find employment in Manitoba.

He noted Brandon was selected as one of the pilot communities for the federal Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program, based on the program in Atlantic Canada. The other Manitoba region in the pilot program is Gretna-Rhineland-Altona-Plum Coulee.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre told the Sun Friday it has not received any reports regarding Facts Global Care — Canada One Five Zero, Canada Global Care or Marcia Allen.

“We do not investigate and thus cannot confirm if there are any related investigations,” CAFC wrote.

Brandon police spokeswoman Sgt. Kirby Sararas said they have no record of complaints from any of the families regarding Allen or Facts Global Care.

The police service’s major crimes unit will investigate cases of fraud if brought to their attention, she said.

Westman Immigrant Services executive director Lois MacDonald said her agency only helps those with permanent residency status settle in the community.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people that don’t have the best of intentions, necessarily, out there that take advantage of people in those kinds of situations,” she said.

» brobertson@brandonsun.com

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