EDMONTON — An Edmonton woman has been charged with human trafficking as well as hiring foreign workers without authorization.
Canada Border Services Agency alleges that Jennilynn Morris, who is 44, contracted illegal employees as cleaning, room service and kitchen staff for three Edmonton-area hotels; as house cleaners in private homes; and to stuff flyers into newspapers at an Edmonton-area publishing company.
The agency also alleges that Morris brought a foreign worker in to Canada to work, but the employment turned out to be for less pay, more hours and for different work than originally agreed to.
Border Services spokeswoman Lisa White says the maximum penalty for human trafficking under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is $1 million fine and or one year in jail.
Morris is also charged with misrepresentation and three counts of hiring foreign workers without authorization.
Morris is scheduled to appear in Edmonton provincial court on July 2.
“This file was significant, we executed two search warrants, seized thousands of pieces of evidence and interviewed hundreds of people ... throughout the five-year investigation, the CBSA was able to positively 212 people from a list of over 700 possible illegal workers,” White said.
She would not give the names of Morris’s company or of the employers.