[LINK] "Dhalla controversy takes twist with accounts from advocate, lawyer"

[rfmcdonald]

The CBC reports that the ongoing Ruby Dhalla controversy has just become more complex. Surprise!

Agatha Mason, the executive director of Intercede, a non-profit group that helps immigrant women in Toronto, told a parliamentary committee she got a call about a year ago from Richelyn Tongson, who was working in the Dhalla home.

Tongson, 37, and Magdalene Gordo, 31, say they were hired in early 2008 to work in Dhalla's family home in Mississauga, Ont., to care for her mother, Tavinder. They claim Dhalla paid them only a fraction of the minimum wage and made them work long hours doing household chores, allegations the MP denies.

Mason testified Tongson was sobbing because she said Dhalla had her passport and birth certificate and refused to give them back.

Mason said she first phoned Neil Dhalla, Ruby Dhalla's brother, because it was a local number. He told her to call his sister in Ottawa.

Mason, who said she remembered hesitating before making the long-distance call because of Intercede's small budget, recalled that conversation on Thursday for the committee.

[. . .]

The story took another strange twist Thursday when lawyer Shawn Philbert, who attended the news conference with Levitt, said he represents a Toronto-area man who originally sponsored one of the caregivers.

Philbert wouldn't identify his client, saying only he lives in the Greater Toronto Area and represents "the average person who needs a nanny."

He said the man sponsored Magdalene Gordo to come to Canada from the Philippines in December 2007 to care for his four children, but that she told him she was sick and left after three weeks.

Philbert said Gordo made similar allegations of mistreatment against his client to the nanny agency that brought her to Canada. However, Philbert didn't offer any evidence of the complaint to the agency or documents of employment, saying the news conference happened on such short notice he didn't have time to gather the papers.