Two Saskatchewan men have been found guilty of human trafficking for exploiting a woman from Bangladesh who worked in their restaurants.
Mohammed Masum, 44, and Sohel Haider, 55, were taken into custody on Friday after Judge Miguel Martinez announced his verdict in Saskatoon provincial court.
"Both of the accused exploited [the woman's] vulnerability for their respective material benefit," Martinez said.
"Both men took advantage of their authority as her employers and what I call their cultural authority as men to control and direct her movements. Both of them played on her fear of having to leave Canada. Largely, they did this by threatening to withhold or cancel her work permit or to report her to the authorities."
Masum "went even further," Martinez continued, by taking the woman's passport and withholding it from her "until she agreed to have sexual intercourse with him."
Masum was also charged with three counts of sexual assault; Martinez found him guilty on all of them — noting that he found Masum sexually assaulted the woman eight separate times.
The woman cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban.
The trial for the two men was held in Rosetown provincial court on various dates that added up to about seven weeks of court time over an 18-month period.
It moved to a Saskatoon courtroom for closing arguments in June, followed by the judge's verdict on Friday.
The charges covered a time period between Aug. 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.
Martinez gave a short overview of the evidence heard at trial.
The woman arrived in Toronto from Bangladesh in August 2022, ostensibly for a short vacation, but with the "real purpose" to find a way to stay in Canada, Martinez said.
She learned that she could extend her stay if she found employment as a temporary foreign worker and ultimately came to Saskatchewan in late September 2022 to work at a restaurant Haider operated in Gull Lake.
Haider didn't yet have government approval to hire her when she came to the province, but she said the deal was that in exchange for her labour, he would provide free room and board and pay her $1,000 a month.
She worked long hours, six days a week, and Haider never paid her, Martinez said.