Lack of experience or political reasons? Temporary foreign workers refused entry to Quebec

A restaurant owner in Montreal is looking for answers after Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) refused to provide work permits to four temporary foreign workers due to lack of experience.

Michael Lafaille, who runs the restaurant Kwizinn in the Old Port, believes there’s more to the story.

“I think they got rejected because of the political situation of Haiti,” Lafaille told CityNews.

Lafaille, who serves Caribbean fusion cuisine at his restaurant, decided to hire temporary foreign workers from Haiti to address staffing issues.

“We’ve been hiring people, they come and go. But I need some people that are stable,” he explained.

Throughout the nine-month process, he interviewed potential candidates to make sure they were qualified. Quebec granted approval for him to hire temporary workers, but their federal work permit applications were turned down.

“He said ‘I’m not convinced this person has the experience,’” Lafaille recalled. “For me, who’s been a restaurant owner for seven years, who’s been hiring over, I think, 300 people in my seven years, I do know exactly the profile that I want.”

Lafaille is now $20,000 out of pocket after spending it on application and consultation fees.

“Countries where individuals are from a visible minority or there is a political or economical situation in those countries, they tend to have a higher refusal rate,” said immigration lawyer Viviane Albuquerque.

Since March, Haiti has been in a state of emergency due to the country’s rampant gang violence. Haiti is listed as a high-risk country — “avoid all travel” — on Canada’s list of travel advisories.

Lafaille and Albuquerque are calling on Ottawa to be more transparent when it comes to the application process.

“If the requirements are as transparent as the government publishes on their website, then those four foreign workers should be in Canada now,” Albuquerque said.

IRCC tells CityNews it deals with thousands of applications every day, and is committed to fair and non-discriminatory application procedures.

“Applications are assessed on a case by case basis. Decisions are made by highly trained officers who carefully and systematically assess each application against the criteria set out in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its regulations, regardless of the country of origin.”

But Lafaille is not convinced.

“Getting refused 100 per cent of those requests just doesn’t make sense,” he said.