Calgary Restaurant Owners Jailed for Exploiting Foreign Workers

Three restaurant owners in Calgary have been sentenced to jail after being found guilty of financially exploiting temporary foreign workers employed at Marina Dosa and Tandoori Grill. Manikandan Kasinathan, Chandramohan Marjak, and Mary Roche were each handed 90-day jail sentences, to be served on weekends, after being convicted of fraud over $5,000. The court also placed them on 18 months of probation and ordered them to repay $44,000 taken from three workers. The sentencing was delivered by Justice Sandra Mah following a trial that began in 2024 and concluded in May 2025.

The victims, all Indian nationals, came to Calgary between 2017 and 2020 under employer-specific work permits to work as cooks. Shortly after arriving, they were told they must pay as much as $24,000 each for Labour Market Impact Assessment fees, which the owners falsely claimed were required for their immigration process. In reality, Canadian law requires employers to pay LMIA fees, which are limited to $1,000 per worker. Court evidence showed the workers were threatened with deportation if they refused to pay the demanded amounts.

One of the victims testified that he was forced to work six days a week for 12 to 14 hours a day for nearly a year to repay the money. The court heard that his employer controlled his finances by taking him to the bank on payday and demanding cash payments immediately after his paycheque was deposited. The workers were also required to live in overcrowded and substandard housing owned by the accused while paying rent to them.

Justice Mah found that the workers were subjected to verbal and physical abuse and described the situation as severe exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers. One victim told the court that despite working in several countries, this was the first place where he felt treated like a slave. The accused did not testify in their defence, and their lawyers’ claims that the money was for rent, food, airfare, or loans were rejected by the court. The ruling sends a strong message that exploitation of temporary foreign workers will not be tolerated and highlights the need to protect migrant workers under Canadian labour and immigration laws.