Ontario’s Ministry of Labour published a news release in late May alerting the public that a Toronto businessman and his private school were fined $410,000 for failing to comply with orders to pay wages.
At the time, those fines were already two weeks past due with the courts.
Anchuan Jiang and his company Ontario International College were convicted under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) in March for not paying nearly $185,000 in wages owed to 14 employees as ordered. On top of the fines, there was also a 25 per cent victim surcharge. Both were supposed to be paid in Toronto’s provincial offences court by May 12.
But they weren’t.
As of last week, Jiang hadn’t paid a cent of the $580,730 in fines and surcharges, according to Toronto’s court services division.
Steal $1m, straight to jail. Unless you steal from your employees, in which case the bureaucracy will write strongly worded letters and perhaps even place a lien on your home!
This is the basis for poor and marginalized people being locked away in American prisons. Debtor prison is a bad idea, even if it sounds good.
The prison time is not for the debt. It’s for the crime of theft. Again - he stole from his employees.