Sarah Mills: Summer is a chance to be a kid again
Sarah Mills says summer camps mean kids disconnect for a while, learn to make friends without sending a text and gain a ...
A Saskatoon man was handed a conditional sentence this week after admitting he had counselled foreigners to misrepresent their employment details on federal and provincial immigration applications.
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, Balvir Singh was handed a conditional sentence of two years less a day in Saskatoon’s Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday. In addition to the community sentence, he was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and complete 40 hours of community service.
Read more:
- Unlicensed immigration consultant ordered to pay $96,000 to compensate victim
- How high pandemic-period immigration papered over the cracks in Canada’s economy
- Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls
The agency said it began an investigation in 2018 after border officers noticed “unusually large numbers of immigration applications” related to a Saskatoon-based non-profit.
“The investigation found that Singh was counseling foreign nationals to misrepresent employment information on federal and provincial immigration applications,” the border agency said in a statement.
“This included falsified pay stubs, offers of employment and other supporting documents related to non-existent employment in Canada.”
The Canada Border Services Agency said it worked in partnership with the Saskatchewan government’s immigrant nominee program and identified “a significant number of foreign nationals connected to Singh who came to Canada with misrepresented information, many who began engaging in unauthorized work outside of the scope of their permit, including in the delivery, construction and restaurant industry.”
The agency said it also learned that Singh was “charging foreign nationals up to $40,000 for immigration sponsorship.”
Police raided Singh’s home and a Saskatoon restaurant on June 3, 2021, the agency said, where they seized evidence that led to charges against Singh. He ultimately entered the guilty plea on April 2.
“The Government of Saskatchewan takes the integrity of our immigration system seriously,” said Eric Schmalz, Saskatchewan’s minister of immigration and career training, quoted in a statement from the agency.
“This investigation and conviction is a result of important collaboration between our provincial immigration enforcement team and the Canada Border Services Agency. We will continue to work together to stop immigration fraud from occurring in Saskatchewan.”
Gary Anandasangaree, the federal minister of public safety, said the case demonstrates “the strong collaboration between the Canada Border Services Agency and provincial partners, who are working together to uphold Canada’s immigration laws and bring those that violate them to justice.”
