SASKATOON — A Saskatoon judge has convicted two men of human trafficking after a seven-week trial that heard how a vulnerable woman from Bangladesh was brought to Saskatchewan, isolated, and exploited for cheap labour.
In a decision released Aug. 7, Provincial Court Judge Miguel Martinez found Sohel Haider, 55, and Mohammed Masum, 44, guilty of human trafficking. Masum was additionally convicted of three counts of sexual assault against the woman, identified only as S.K. due to a publication ban.
“I do not have any reasonable doubt about the guilt of either,” said Judge Martinez.
He ordered Haider and Masum to be taken into custody to await their sentencing.
Victim vulnerable
Court heard that the woman arrived in Canada from Bangladesh in August 2022 on a visitor visa. She initially stayed in Toronto.
She had two master’s degrees and had been employed by the Bangladeshi government for about 19 years.
Haider, who operated the Empire Diner in Gull Lake, recruited the woman through a job posting. He arranged for her to travel from Toronto to Regina and then to Gull Lake.
The Crown argued that once she arrived, Haider isolated her from any support network and used the promise — and threat — of a work permit to control her.
At the house in Gull Lake she slept on an air mattress, which was replaced by a foam mattress on the floor. She worked 12-hour shifts mainly as a waitress with one-half hour for lunch. She worked six days a week.
Court heard that Haider controlled S.K.’s movement and immigration status. She testified that Haider urged her to be patient about her work permit and informed her she would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to obtain one. He later agreed to reduce the price to $10-12,000, payable in monthly instalments of $1,000.
Haider and Masum instructed her to open a bank account in Tisdale.
Haider later arranged for her to go with Masum to work at the Little Town Restaurant in Tisdale. He told her she would go in a week. But that evening he told her to pack her belongings as he was taking her to Tisdale within the hour.
S.K. testified that she was “very upset by this sudden change of plans,” and asked him to take her Regina or Saskatoon instead so she could return to Toronto or go back to Bangladesh. She also asked to be paid but Haider said he “had no money.”
S.K. testified that things Masum said made her uncomfortable. He told her that he had cut a person’s hands. He said he was arrested because of problems with his ex-wife in Canada but “bragged that he was out of jail within a month.”
Masum eventually took S.K. to Elrose. She later found out that her work permit was for Bob’s Diner in Elrose.
S.K. testified that Masum sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions between November 2022 and February 2023. In November 2022, Masum took her passport and withheld it for about one week and threatened not to return it unless she had sex with him.
She was paid $3,500 during her time in Tisdale, according to records she kept. She testified that Haider never paid her for work in Gull Lake.
Two MLAs intervened over concerns for woman's safety
During the trial, court heard that two Saskatchewan Party MLAs, Hugh Nerlien and Doug Steele, intervened after becoming concerned about the woman’s safety.
“She had been moved a couple of times, so we didn’t know where she was or if she was safe for potentially days,” testified Nerlien during the trial.
He said Steele had raised alarms about the woman’s treatment.
“Mr. Steele had expressed to me that he was concerned with how [the victim] was being observed and that ‘something was not quite right’ in the employer-employee relationship,” said Nerlien.
Court heard Steele arranged for Nerlien to visit the Little Town Restaurant in Tisdale and covertly provide S.K. with contact information for a settlement worker in Tisdale. The worker met with S.K. and learned about her situation. She disclosed that she had been subjected to “sex violence” and “sex tasks,” using Bengali terms translated through an app.
When S.K. was taken to Elrose in March 2023, she lived in a basement that was partially finished with a concrete floor. The basement bathroom was filthy and didn’t have a door. S.K. told the outreach worker she didn’t feel safe there. There was no food or clean water in the house.
“S.K.’s living quarters can best be described as squalid,” said Judge Martinez.
The worker arranged for Steele’s constituency assistant to drive to Elrose and take S.K. to a women’s shelter in Swift Current. On March 23, 2023, she was removed from the house and taken to safety.
The workers at the safe house helped her get a new cell phone and number. They also helped her change her bank account password, obtain a health card, and a new work permit. After learning details of her ordeal, the workers reported her situation to the local RCMP detachment.
The defence
Both accused testified in their own defence.
Haider claimed S.K. never worked in his Gull Lake restaurant. He claimed he took her in as a favour and that his objective was to help her.
Court heard that Haider had been granted political asylum by the Government of Canada and emigrated from Bangladesh.
Masum testified that S.K. was a “guest” and never worked in his restaurant. He denied any inappropriate physical contact with her.
Masum emigrated to Canada as a permanent resident after his first wife sponsored him.
Court’s findings
Judge Martinez found S.K. to be "credible and reliable." He acknowledged some inconsistencies in her testimony but attributed those to the language barrier and the length of time she was on the stand.
“Her story held together even under vigorous, probing, and lengthy cross-examination,” he said.
The judge rejected the evidence of both accused, describing significant portions of their testimony as self-serving and implausible.
The judge found that Haider’s evidence was directly contradicted by Steele’s testimony. Steele testified that S.K. served him at the Empire Diner on three separate Friday mornings, contradicting Haider’s claim that she never worked there.
The judge also rejected Haider’s claim that S.K. had deceived him about her cooking credentials, saying her resume highlighted her experience with a home-based catering company but didn’t claim restaurant cooking experience.
Masum’s evidence was contradicted by Nerlien’s testimony. Nerlien said that the only person he saw serving customers at the Little Town Restaurant was S.K.
Judge Martinez said Masum’s claim that he took S.K. in as a favour was contradicted by his actions in photographing an altercation between her and another employee and keeping security camera footage “for evidence.”
Beyond a reasonable doubt
Judge Martinez said the Crown had proven the conduct element of human trafficking beyond a reasonable doubt. Both accused recruited, transported, transferred, received, harboured, and exercised control over S.K.’s movements.
Court heard that S.K. spoke limited English and had minimal financial resources.
“As they were from the same cultural background as S.K., Mr. Haider and Mr. Masum were acutely aware of her vulnerability as a married Muslim woman, travelling alone in a foreign country where she desperately wanted to live and work despite not having any friends or family,” said Judge Martinez.
“Mr. Haider removed S.K. from Toronto and brought her to a small prairie town, essentially in the middle of nowhere. A place where she knew no one," he added. "A place from which she could not leave without someone else’s assistance.”
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
