Bureaucracy leaves baker and family out in cold
The federal government’s shabby treatment of Italian baker Massimo Marti and his young family continues.
Marti has not been able to work since May 4, and will not be able to return to the Little Italy Bakery on Preston Street, which he co-owns, until he finds out from the federal government whether his wife, Vittoria Toscano, can be hired by the company under the temporary foreign worker program.
A labour market impact assessment — to determine whether the business could not find a Canadian or permanent resident for the job as a specialized southern Italian pastry chef — is ready for the government’s consideration. But that can’t happen until a Service Canada review on whether the bakery complied with the program that enabled Marti to work there as a specialized Italian baker, beginning in 2012. His temporary foreign worker’s permit has expired, but if Toscano is accepted into the same program, then Marti, as her husband, could piggyback on her permit and return to work.
The problem for the couple is that the employer compliance review on Marti’s work term appears to be taking ridiculously long. Information required from the bakery for a decision — and reviewed by the Public Citizen — has been in the hands of Service Canada since July 17. Yet Marti and Toscano, who have four children ages five to 12, remain in limbo with little money. The couple is relying on financial support from their families in Italy.
This week, after the Citizen contacted the Service Canada investigator working on their file — he would not comment on the case — the bakery received a request for additional information. Smoke and mirrors, says a fuming Marti. The Immigration department and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada have not yet responded to questions from the newspaper.
What complicates the situation further is that the family’s temporary resident visas expire on Nov. 4. They will have to reapply for new six-month visas, at a cost of $800 in government fees, if the employer compliance review isn’t released soon. Even so, there isn’t any guarantee that new visas will be approved, and given how the government has treated them for almost three years, they fear being deported to Italy — just as Toscano and the children were in March 2013.
If Toscano can be hired under the temporary foreign worker program, the job would give the family four more years toward meeting the requirements for permanent residency following various setbacks, mostly through government blunders, going back to early 2013.
“What do they want me to do?” asks Marti, who brought his family to Canada in 2008, seeking a better life. “I like Canada, I like Ottawa … but I don’t understand what’s going on … (the government) is playing with the future of my family.”
Marti and his business partner pay considerable taxes, employ five people and have expansion plans. Yet the government seems to want them to close shop and throw people out of work, he says.
The family has certainly been through the wringer.
On March 1, 2013, Toscano and their children were deported to Italy because Marti’s visa as a temporary resident had expired on Jan. 4. Marti had been notified by letter from Immigration in early January that he had until April 4 to restore his status to allow him and the family to remain here. He had not yet paid the $800 fees to begin the renewal process when he was pulled over in his vehicle on Jan. 24 by Canada Border Services Agency officers, who suspected he was working with an expired visa.
Pleas to allow Toscano and the children to stay here an extra two weeks until an immigration tribunal determined Marti’s status were rejected.
On March 14, an immigration tribunal dismissed Immigration’s case against Marti and ordered that he be issued a new two-year work permit.
Then, on March 19, 2013 — as a result of a Jan. 24 search of his Nepean home by the CBSA after his arrest for the expired visa — he was charged with careless storage of firearms. CBSA agents searched the house without a warrant and found six rifles (Marti, an avid deer and moose hunter, had a firearms acquisition certificate from the RCMP).
The criminal case against Marti went through three pre-trial hearings despite the judge’s concern that it was weak and a waste of court time. The Crown decided on May 26, 2014, not to pursue the charge. Marti’s contention was that the guns were properly locked in a firearms cabinet when the CBSA agents searched his house.
Toscano and the children flew back to Canada on Aug. 30, 2014, but were detained in Dorval for several hours. Toscano recalls being grilled, and son, Santo, now 12, trembling uncontrollably because he feared they would be not be admitted. She says that ordeal and their deportation was humiliating for her and the children.
They will have to reapply for new six-month visas, at a cost of $800 in government fees, if the employer compliance review isn’t released soon.