2 Sask. restaurant operators convicted of trafficking woman from Bangladesh

Sohel Haider, Mohammed Masum taken into custody to await sentencing

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.

Lengthy trial

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.

MLA concerned

At the restaurant, the woman met Cypress Hills MLA Doug Steele when she waited on him three times in the fall of 2022. He became concerned about her, Martinez said.

In November 2022, Haider sent the woman to Tisdale to work in a restaurant operated by his friend, Masum, with a similar agreement that Masum would give her free room and board and pay her $1,000 a month.

From then until mid-March 2023, she worked 12-hour shifts, six days a week with a half-hour for lunch each day, Martinez said. On the woman's one day off, Masum usually required her to go with him to Saskatoon to buy restaurant supplies.

Steele continued to worry about the woman, and he contacted the MLA in the area at that time, Hugh Nerlien, about his concerns. Nerlien went to the restaurant in Tisdale, where the woman waited on him, and he "secretly" handed her his business card wrapped in a strip of paper with a social worker's contact information, Martinez said.

The woman spoke with the social worker, who also became concerned.

Eventually, the woman received her work permit, but it was a "closed work permit" that required her to work in a specific restaurant in Elrose.

After she was taken there, the social worker and Steele "devised a plan to clandestinely extract [her] from her situation," Martinez said.

"They successfully executed their plan on March 23, 2023," he said.

Men taken into custody

In coming to his verdict, Martinez said he found the testimony of the MLAs and the social worker to be very credible.

He also found the woman "credible and reliable."

Haider and Masum testified in their own defence and denied the woman ever worked in their restaurants. Masum also denied the sexual assaults.

Martinez said he found Haider's testimony "unconvincing, at times self-serving, often vague and sometimes evasive."

As for Masum, "I also did not find him to be the least bit credible," Martinez said.

After the judge finished giving his verdict, Crown prosecutor Leslie Dunning asked for Haider and Masum to be taken into custody as they await sentencing.

Human trafficking carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of four years.

Martinez ordered the men to be taken into custody. They will return to court next week to set a date for their sentencing hearing.