BRAMPTON: As the population of the Indo-Canadian community grows rapidly in Canada, there is an intense race to get richer than others among us.
Though the majority of them are hardworking and honest members of the community – as were our pioneers who made Canada their home more that a hundred years ago. But over the last decade a trend has emerged among a certain percentage of Indo-Canadians – mostly Punjabis – to become rich overnight.
Their greed to become rich quickly by cutting corners has tainted the overall image of Punjabis in Canada. These greedy people have spawned a culture of exploitation of new immigrants by older immigrants, cash economy, drug smuggling, thefts, marriages of convenience for immigration, tax cheating,, stealing of vehicle, misuse of religious places for tax evasion and smuggling immigrants into Canada.
If not checked, this trend will become a blot on the entire Indo-Canadian community. These malpractices are known to everyone in the community, including our Indo-Canadian elected leaders – MPs and MPPs. But, unfortunately, these elected leaders are doing nothing because they are beholden to religious places and businesses for funding their political campaigns.
Moreover, our desi political leaders don’t make the mainstream leadership aware of these things so that remedial measures can be initiated to stop them.
One of the biggest fraud being perpetuated by some unscrupulous Punjabis is the misuse of LMIA to hire foreign employees and get them Permanent Residency for a huge amount of money.
An LMIA is basically a document that an employer need from the Government of Canada to hire a foreign worker. The employee files an application with the government, saying that there is no Canadian citizen or permanent resident for a particular job at his company. The government will assess his application and then issue him an LMIA to hire a foreign worker.
Many businesses run by Punjabis – be it trucking companies, restaurants, offices or factories – fill their vacancies by using LMIA to issue job letters to foreign workers for a huge amount of money.
But to the Canadian government, it looks as a very simple and convenient system to create a win-win situation for the country. The government doesn’t know that the LMIA system is being exploited to the hilt by many business people to get rich quickly.
The rate of money charged for getting an LMIA letter is steadily rising because of the craze in Punjab to come to Canada.
The amount of money charged for a job letter for a truck driver has gone up to $ 75,000 under the LMIA system.
We have learnt that some trucking companies applied for almost 100 LMIA per year and sold them at current rates to Punjabi job seekers. In case some job seekers could not pay the amount, business owners have forced them to sign two years’ contracts so that they will work without salary to pay the cost of LMIA. Such cases have happened in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, but there is no action by the Canadian authorities to check this blatant misuse of the LMIA system.
Brampton reporter-cum-community activist Satpaul Johal has been constantly taking up this issue with various leaders, including ministers belonging to the community. Despite their promises to address this issue, no Indo-Canadian political leader and ministers have done anything to this day. So much so that one of the senior community leaders told Johal that they were not aware of any such misuse of the LMIA system.
The only fruit that Johal’s efforts have borne is that the government has given the contact number of one site where aggrieved persons can report their cases. But this won’t stop the blatant exploitation of new employees.
Most of us are resigned to the fact that the LMIA fraud will continue unchecked.
Johal has suggested that the Canadian government can create a fast-track, point-based recruitment system for foreign workers, similar to the point-based immigration system. The government can prepare the lists of eligible foreign workers and share these with employers looking to recruit people with particular skills.
Johal’s suggestion may help end the misuse of the LMIA system. Most complex problems sometimes have very simple solutions, provided the authorities want to solve them.
Overall, most Punjabis in Canada live an honest life except a small percentage which believes in getting rich by hook and by crook.
As a community, we have to expose wrong practices in our midst so that we aren’t collectively tarnished forever.
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