The abuse, Jacqueline Hernandez says, started just 15 days after she arrived as a temporary foreign worker at an Ontario fish farm.It began with her employer separating her from other women on the farm near Leamington. Then, he demanded she eat alone with him, threatening to deport her to Mexico if she did not. Later, he would lock her in his office, touch her, and ask her to perform oral sex, according to an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision.On three occasions, he “climbed on top of her and penetrated her with his penis,” the tribunal found. Hernandez testified that she did not want that but was afraid he would send her home.The Star is not using Hernandez’s real name, which is subject to a publication ban after her successful human rights case against her former employer. In 2015, the tribunal found her boss, Jose Pratas, “engaged in a persistent and ongoing pattern of sexual solicitations and advances” toward her. It ordered him to pay Hernandez more than $150,000 in compensation.Pratas could not be reached for comment. He did not testify in the tribunal hearing. He was charged criminally for allegedly abusing seven women including Hernandez and pleaded guilty to simple assault in 2011. He was given a conditional discharge with three months of probation. Other sexual assault charges were withdrawn in a criminal court the same year. Pratas no longer owns the farm where Hernandez worked. READ MORE:Why Canada`s farm industry is ripe for change: WellsHe`s worked legally in Canada for 37 years but the government considers him ‘temporary’While Hernandez is one of the few migrant workers to file — and win — a tribunal case against an abusive employer, she believes there are many more like her who live in fear of coming forward.“Simply, they can’t speak. Their hands are tied,” she says.That, her tribunal decision notes, is because of migrant workers’ unique “economic vulnerabilit ...
|
