An Edmonton woman charged in a human trafficking investigation will make her first court appearance Wednesday.
Officials with the Canada Border Services Agency charged Jennilyn Morris after a five-year investigation into illegally employed foreign nationals.
CBSA investigators said the workers did not have the proper documentation or authorization to work in Canada.
Morris has been accused of contracting workers for three Edmonton hotels as cleaning and kitchen staff, as house cleaners in homes and to stuff flyers into newspapers at an Edmonton-area publishing company.
Over the course of the investigation officials claim they found more than 12,000 documents and identified over 100 illegal workers.
“We were able to positively identify 212 people from a list of over 700 possibly illegal foreign nationals,” CBSA’s Lisa White explained.
The Agency said they believe one of the workers was brought into Canada by an offer of employment that turned out to be fraudulent, with the employee having to do different work than first offered, work for less pay and more hours.
Morris faces five charges, including human trafficking – the first time such charges have been laid in Alberta.
With files from Sara Richter, Julia Parrish
