Détails du document

2009-08-25

Karena Walter

Welland Tribune

ST. CATHARINES — A Niagara-on-the-Lake greenhouse has been fined $5,000 for employing three foreign nationals who weren't allowed to work.

But the company said it believed the men were legal employees after hiring them through an employment agency.

Garden City Growers pleaded guilty in St. Catharines Ontario Court of Justice Friday to employing three foreign nationals not authorized to be employed under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

The workers were arrested in the parking lot of Garden City Growers and worked illegally from April 2009 to October 2009.

The $5,000 fine was a joint submission by the defence lawyer Bruce Wormald and federal prosecutor Maria Rodriguez.

Wormald said the three workers hired through an agency had been vetted and were allowed to work, but their authorizations had expired.

He said the company admits it didn't exercise due diligence.

"They certainly have tightened up their procedures at this point," Wormald said.

It was the company's first offence.

Owner Teunis VanderKaay appeared in court on behalf of the family-owned company. He declined to comment after the proceeding.

But his company wasn't the first greenhouse to have troubles with immigration officials after hiring workers through an employment agency.

A St. Catharines greenhouse was fined $5,000 in 2009 for hiring a pair of illegal workers after receiving assurances from an agency the men were allowed to work.

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