A man from Mexico says he toiled long hours, seven days a week, for nearly a year without proper pay for a hotel chain that he says took advantage of him and others. Victor Padilla Ruiz says he came to Canada in 2022 after he was told he would work as a chef at a restaurant for a hotel being opened in Melita, Man., by the Saskatchewan-based Western Star All Suites hotel chain.Instead, the Mexican national says he was sent to work as a cook at the chain’s location in Esterhazy, Sask.”If I have to go [do] something outside, they always [were] angry and they tell me, ‘Why you are outside?'” Padilla Ruiz told CBC News.”I cannot speak English. I don’t have enough money [to] come back to my country…. I can’t work without work permit, and they told me, ‘OK, you can start. No worries, in 15 days, we will apply for you.'”Padilla Ruiz then moved to Western Star’s Melita location in 2023, where he says he experienced similar conditions. For nearly a year in Melita, he worked an average of 12 hours a day, seven days a week.The Western Star hotel in Melita is seen in an October 2025 photo. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)In November 2024, Manitoba Employment Standards ordered Western Star director Harpinder Kaur Brar to pay Padilla Ruiz $84,917 in owed wages, according to a decision shared with CBC News.The amount was based on unpaid overtime, holiday vacation pay and other wages from a 10-month period ending May 11, 2024.Padilla Ruiz says his former employer appealed the decision, so he’s still waiting for the money he’s owed.A Manitoba government spokesperson told CBC in an email earlier this year that the Employment Standards claim remains active, but no further information can be disclosed at this time.Other labour disputesIt’s not the only labour dispute the hotel chain faced at the time.Manitoba Employment Standards rulings show the hotel was ordered to pay owed wages to two other unnamed employees in November 2024 – on the same day as the ruling on Padilla Ruiz’s owed wages was issued.According to the Employment Standards documents, the director of Western Star, also unnamed, said she assumed the role of director after the sudden death of her husband, and she is appealing all decisions. In addition to Padilla Ruiz, CBC News spoke with two other former Western Star employees from around the same time who also said they were underpaid, worked excessive hours and were under close watch by their superiors.One former employee said they were expected to stay at the hotel 24/7.”I was scared to leave my room,” the former employee said. CBC is not identifying her because she fears for her safety.Another former employee, whom CBC News is not naming because he fears it may affect his immigration status, said working at Western Star took a huge mental and financial toll. They would have had me working without status in the country until who knows when.- Former Western Star workerThe man said he also came to Canada to work for the hotel chain with the promise that Western Star would help him apply for temporary residence within 15 days after he arrived in the country.”They would have had me working without status in the country until who knows when,” he said in Spanish.”They made me an offer that caught my attention, but I was doing very well in Mexico economically…. I was looking for peace of mind, to be able to have a family in a worthwhile country. That’s why I came here. But if I didn’t have that, why did I come?”None of the three former Western Star employees CBC News spoke with had temporary foreign worker status, nor were they otherwise authorized to work in Canada when they began working for Western Star.Two of the workers said they knowingly misrepresented themselves to Canadian authorities upon their arrival, based on the promise they would get legal work status soon after.No ownership involvement: BrarThe workers allege Gary Brar arranged for their hiring.Brar was identified as Western Star’s owner in a 2014 CBC report, when the hotel chain was accused of mistreating workers. Brar said in a phone call with CBC he had not been at a Western Star since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and “had no ownership involvement” at the hotel chain.He denied the hotel chain illegally hired foreign workers, but also said that Western Star tried to help Padilla Ruiz get a work permit, which was declined.In an email exchange between a Canada Border Services Agency official and a Western Star worker provided to CBC News, CBSA said the agency was investigating the company, as was Manitoba Employment Standards and Saskatchewan’s Immigration Ministry.CBSA and Saskatchewan and Manitoba labour authorities said they don’t comment on investigations. Exploiters and employers are very good at using the loopholes and avoiding the paper trail.- Carey Collins, ACT Alberta chairCarey Collins, chair of the Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT) Alberta, said the situation faced by the workers CBC News spoke to fit what the non-profit would see in a labour trafficking case. Employers will often tell people who are trafficked, “You have to do this for two, three, four years, and then you’ll be able to move to an open permit,” Collins said.”[They’re] essentially making promises to keep them here working under these horrific conditions with the hope that one day they’ll have permanent residency in Canada, when really that’s not something the employer can promise at all.”Gary Brar denied any involvement in human trafficking, and said he was unaware of an investigation looking into that activity at the hotels.ACT Alberta is assisting Padilla Ruiz, and helped him apply for a temporary work permit. He gave his consent for the organization to discuss his case.Laying charges in labour trafficking cases can be challenging, Collins said.”There needs to be proof and … exploiters and employers are very good at using the loopholes and avoiding the paper trail,” she said.’They’re very scared’Padilla Ruiz said that on May 10, 2024 — almost a full year after he arrived in Melita — he was told to stop working. He said he was told by someone who was a manager at the hotel chain it was due to an ongoing immigration investigation.”They told me, ‘OK, you … should leave the hotel, because we have problem with immigration, and maybe they will come to check the hotel,'” he said.In an audio recording provided to CBC News by Padilla Ruiz, a Western Star manager can be heard telling him that people and the company, including Gary Brar, had told the manager they would pay for his flights back home.”They’re very scared, Victor. They are scared. This is not fake,” she said. “This is very serious. It’s not a joke. I have never seen Gary this scared in my life.”Padilla Ruiz and one other Western Star worker CBC spoke with say people with the hotel chain put them in touch with a man named “Gurwinder” — whom they knew as a lawyer — to handle their immigration applications, after they complained about their lack of temporary foreign worker status. Both said they communicated with “Gurwinder” through WhatsApp messaging.Footage from the Western Star hotel in Melita provided by Padilla Ruiz shows him discussing his work permit status with one of his employers. (Submitted by Victor Padilla Ruiz)In the recording, Padilla Ruiz and the manager talk about Gurwinder after the worker complained about his lack of effort getting him the promised work permit. The manager mentions a raid on Gurwinder’s office and home, saying it had happened a day earlier.CBC News has confirmed the phone number in WhatsApp exchanges with the workers belonged to Gurwinder Ahluwalia, who pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized employment of foreign nationals at a construction site he was involved with in Winnipeg.Four days before Padilla Ruiz’s dismissal on May 10, 2024, CBSA got warrants to raid Ahluwalia’s home and operations connected to Apex Construction, a company owned by the Brar family.The Manitoba government says there is an active investigation into Apex.Ahluwalia declined to be interviewed, but sent a text message to CBC News denying he had any knowledge about individuals saying they were working illegally at Western Star.”I do not know if I may have provided generic information to someone on their request — more as a community guidance on a pro bono basis at their request, possibly,” the message said.”At present, I am serving my sentence, and I am going through so much emotional stress and social stigma.”Court heard at least 14 foreign nationals were illegally employed at a construction site in northwest Winnipeg’s Templeton Heights neighbourhood. Worker says they were taken advantage ofBut Carlos Adriano Weber, one of six Brazilian nationals named in the search warrant related to Ahluwalia, says he didn’t work at the Winnipeg construction site. Weber says he worked for Gary Brar at construction sites in Saskatchewan, including one of Brar’s hotels – a Holiday Inn Express in Prince Albert. A spokesperson for the owner of the Holiday Inn hotel chain confirmed in an email from June 26 that Gary Brar, of the Western Star group of hotels, owns the Prince Albert Holiday Inn Express location. WATCH | Foreign workers accuse hotelier of taking advantage of them:Mexican man says hotel chain exploited him while he was working in Melita, Man.A man from Mexico says he toiled long hours, seven days a week, for nearly a year without proper pay for a hotel chain that he says took advantage of him and others.Weber said he was promised he would get a work permit before arriving in Canada with a visitor visa. But he left Canada for the U.S. in September 2023, after complaining to Brar about his work and living conditions.”[I told] the boss, ‘I give up. I know you’re not giving me the documents,'” he said. “I’m kind of in depression. I’m [scared] about what can happen here.'”Weber said he always got paid in cash.”When we get sick, he [Gary Brar] would come and pick us up in the house and make us work,” Weber said.Weber feared he wouldn’t be treated at a hospital because he didn’t have insurance. Some went back to their home countries because of workplace injuries, he said.Worker returns home after injuryArturo Ordoñez, another construction worker who spoke to CBC News, said he went back to Mexico a week after he pierced through his hand with a nail gun at a three-apartment development in Prince Albert in December 2023. He says he also worked for Gary Brar.An undated photo of Arturo Ordoñez at a construction site in Prince Albert, Sask. Ordoñez says he went back to Mexico a week after he pierced through his hand with a nail gun at the site, which is owned by PGBrar Investments Inc. (Submitted by Arturo Ordoñez)The Saskatchewan land registry shows that the apartment complex is owned by PGBrar Investments Inc., which has other properties in North Battleford, Lloydminster, Moose Jaw and Swift Current. PGBrar shares a registered office with Apex, according to Alberta corporate documents.”They just took me home. They gave me some painkillers and that was it,” Ordoñez said in Spanish. “They told me … they would send me my work permit, so I could come back [to Canada]. But that never happened.” We try to get them paperwork. But I don’t recall anybody hiring illegally.- Gary BrarWeber said he brought up Brar when he was interviewed by Canada Border Services agents while crossing the border. He said he had contacted Canadian authorities earlier, but was told to leave the country after he mentioned he was working illegally.He spent about six months in Canada. Brar “messed up with a lot of guys with the promise,” Weber said. “He [took] advantage of us.”Gary Brar denied there were illegal workers at the construction sites.”We try to help them out, right?” he said. “We try to get them paperwork. But I don’t recall anybody hiring illegally.”Family denies allegationsSaskatchewan land registry searches show several corporate entities own Western Star properties in that province. Most were registered in Alberta and had Harpinder and Irwin Brar listed as directors. Irwin Brar is also sole owner of Apex Construction.The Western Star entities were either solely owned by an estate or an investment company that also lists Irwin and Harpinder as directors. In a phone call, Harpinder denied that Western Star was illegally hiring foreign workers. She said she only started running the business in January, and was doing so because the estate of her late husband — who workers CBC spoke to said was Gary’s brother — wasn’t finalized. Harpinder said the brothers started Western Star “a long time ago.” She deferred further comment on the hotel chain to Irwin.In an email, Irwin Brar said he has had “no involvement” in the operations of the hotel chain since 2019.He said the Manitoba Employment Standard decisions are based on fraudulent claims.”I have serious concerns that individuals connected to the Manitoba Labour Board Virden Branch may be encouraging or coercing employees to file fraudulent claims,” Irwin Brar said, adding that he’s hired a private investigator to look into whether certain parties had fabricated information affecting Western Star.Irwin sent a letter signed by someone he says was a former Apex Construction employee.The letter writer said he was withdrawing an Employment Standards complaint about unpaid overtime and alleged wage violations, and was filing a complaint against an investigator who pushed him “to continue with a fraudulent case” that “caused harm not only to Apex Construction,” but his personal integrity.An April 2025 file photo of the Templeton Heights multi-residential development in Winnipeg. Gurwinder Singh Ahluwalia, a manager for the project, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized employment of foreign nationals in contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. (Justin Fraser/CBC)The Manitoba government said it cannot comment on the allegations at this time because of the ongoing investigation into Apex.The Manitoba Labour Board said none of its employees work in the Virden area nor do they employ anyone by the name in the letter. The board, which operates independently from the province, says it handles appeals of investigations by Employment Standards and has a hearing scheduled in connection with Apex, but won’t say anything more.A certificate allowing Apex to recruit temporary foreign workers was revoked indefinitely in Saskatchewan on Jan. 8, 2024, over failures to comply with the province’s Employment Act.A letter addressed to Gary Brar, provided by Irwin to CBC News, said the revocation was due to “a pattern of contraventions,” including failure to comply with health and safety provisions multiple times.History of violationsWestern Star was suspended from hiring people under the temporary foreign worker program in Saskatchewan in 2014, after a CBC News story featuring workers saying the hotel chain failed to pay thousands of dollars in overtime to temporary foreign workers, and moved staff around different locations without authorization to do so.In an email, the federal Immigration Ministry did not answer questions about how long the suspension lasted and said it can’t comment on Western Star’s compliance status. Two corporate entities under the Western Star banner had labour market impact assessments — documents allowing employers to hire a set number of temporary foreign workers — approved in 2022 and 2023, according to federal data. Meanwhile, Padilla Ruiz has managed to secure a work permit in Canada with help from the ACT Alberta non-profit.But he still feels like he lost three years of his life, he says.
Foreign workers accuse hotelier with history of labour violations of taking advantage of them in Sask., Man.
