By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada — Four former employees of the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons launched a human rights complaint against their former boss on Friday, saying the franchise owner was racist.

The employees, who were from Mexico, worked at two Dawson Creek, British Columbia locations, owned by Tony Van Den Bosch.  They came to Canada earlier this year as part of the country’s temporary foreign workers program.

Eugene Kung, an attorney with the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said the four workers were required to share rooms in one of two homes owned by Van Den Bosch, where up to 10 people lived at one time.

“They had no privacy in the house,” Kung said.  “The owner would come in and out as he pleased and would enter people’s rooms.”

Kung also said the workers had to pay a $200 “tip” in addition to their $200 monthly rent for the double-bunked rooms.  Kung said Van Den Bosch earned $4,000 a month in rent by doubling up the rooms and doubling the rents.

“When Tim Hortons advertises the double-double, I don’t believe this is what most Canadians had in mind,” Kung said.  “The complainants felt extremely vulnerable having their employer as their landlord.  This placed them in a position of relative powerlessness right from the start of their stay in Dawson Creek.”

Kung added that Van Den Bosch subjected the workers to discrimination.

“Derogatory, racist comments included ‘[expletive] Mexican workers are lazy’ and ‘Mexican idiots,’ while the employer described himself as the owner of their lives,” Kung said.

He also accused Van Den Bosch of regularly withholding the workers’ Mexican passports for periods of time.

“Two of them were fired and sent back to Mexico after raising concerns about their working and living conditions,” Kung added.  “Two of them actually fled in the middle of the night one night because they were so afraid.”

When confronted, Van Den Bosch denied the allegations.

“It’s a bunch of crap.  Bunch of crap totally, you know what I mean?” he said.  “[Whether] you believe it or not, I can’t help what people believe.  They like to believe the negative.    People enjoy that sort of stuff.  You know what I mean?”

Tim Hortons released a statement to the media, saying in part, “Tim Hortons restaurant owners hire their own staff, and when they have difficulty filling restaurant positions with local workers, they turn to the temporary foreign workers program to appropriately staff their restaurants.”

The company also confirmed that Van Den Bosch no longer owns the franchises in question and has not been with the chain since July 2012.

For further information, please see:

CBC News — Tim Hortons Workers File Double-Double Rights Complaint — 9 November 2012

CJDC – 890 AM — Temporary Foreign Workers File Complaint Against Former Tim Hortons Owner — 9 November 2012

CTV News — Mexican Workers File Human Rights Complaint Against Tim Hortons Boss — 9 November 2012

The Vancouver Sun — Former Tim Hortons Employees from Mexico Accuse Dawson Creek Franchise Owner of Abuse — 9 November 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — A Guatemalan diplomat this week questioned the actions of Texas Rangers who fired gunshots from a helicopter on a pickup truck of undocumented immigrants hiding in the bed.

The incident, which happened near the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 25, killed two people and injured one.

“I have a lot of questions,” said Alba Caceres, the Guatemalan consul in McAllen, a border city about 15 miles east of where the incident took place.

The Department of Public Safety, which is in charge of the elite squad of Texas Rangers, said troopers suspected the truck was smuggling drugs because of the covered pickup bed.  Instead, six men lay under that cover, along with three men in the pickup cab, a driver, and a human smuggler.

“Why aren’t the narco-traficos pursued this way?” Caceres asked, referencing drug smugglers.  “Maybe if the officer explained why they made the determination to shoot them, we would understand.  Right now, I am very confused.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that troopers have authority to fire from helicopters to stop a driver, defend themselves or someone at risk, or make an arrest.

The Times also reported that the immigrants, all field workers, each paid $5,000 to be smuggled through Mexico and into Texas.  They had spent nearly three weeks traveling from their hometown of San Martin Jilotepeque, about an hour outside the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City.

In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said troopers believed the driver’s recklessness was a threat to public safety, considering elementary and middle schools were located less than three miles away from the scene of the incident.

“Although it is very tragic that two lives were lost, had the vehicle continued recklessly speeding through the school zone, any number of innocent bystanders or young lives could have been lost or suffered serious bodily injury,” said DPS Director Steve McCraw.

The trooper involved in the shooting returned to work on Thursday after being placed on administrative leave.  He has been assigned administrative duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The victims were identified as Jose Leonardo Coj Cumar, 32, and Marcos Antonio Castro Estrada, 29.  Coj left behind three children and his pregnant wife in order to earn money for a surgical procedure one of his sons needed.  Caceres said Coj did not want to travel illegally but had to for his son.

“We have expressed our outrage at this incident, and we will pursue all the measures necessary to ensure that this is not forgotten or filed away,” she said.

Caceres also said she was awaiting death certificates to allow the bodies to be returned to Guatemala.  The surviving Guatemalans were in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For further information, please see:

The Brownsville Herald — ACLU Voices Concerns of DPS Shooting — 2 November 2012

The Huffington Post — Miguel Avila, Texas Trooper in Chopper Shooting of Two Undocumented Immigrants, Returns to Work — 2 November 2012

The Los Angeles Times — Guatemala Seeks Answers in Texas’ Fatal Shooting of Migrants — 31 October 2012

The Dallas Morning News — Guatemalan Diplomat: Texas Agents Who Fired on Pickup Should’ve Seen It Held People, Not Drugs — 30 October 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Authorities discovered eight dead bodies dumped along the streets of a Mexico City suburb on Thursday.

A police spokesperson said found the bodies in Ecatepec, a poor suburb north of the capital city.  Six of the bodies—five men and one woman—appeared to have been severely beaten.

“They were all naked and showed signs of torture,” police spokesperson said.  “It also appeared their throats had been cut.”

The other two bodies, both men between the ages of 18 and 22, died from gunshot wounds on another street.  So far, police have not identified the bodies or any suspects in what police called two separate crimes.

“Both incidents are being investigated by the homicide prosecutor’s office, which immediately assigned personnel to conduct the corresponding investigation,” the Mexico state Attorney General’s Office said, according to Global Post.

Fox News Latino reported that investigators believe the killings were linked to organized crime because of the way the victims were murdered.  The news organization quoted city officials as saying no messages were left with the bodies.

Fox News Latino also quoted city officials as saying two of the bodies had ropes around their necks, and all of them had “tattoos on different parts of their bodies.”

Since Mexico began cracking down on drug cartels six years ago, more than 60,000 people have died in violence linked to drug trafficking.  The Associated Press reported that Mexico City had been predominantly free of that violence, although it was slowly making its way there.

In September, Mexico deployed troops to Nezahualcoyotl, an eastern suburb, when fighting between two drug cartels spilled into the streets.

Reuters reported that the number of drug war deaths kept by the Mexican newspaper Reforma “is on course to suffer its heaviest death toll this year since [President Felipe] Calderon launched his offensive, at a time when the national count has erased somewhat.”

Ecatepec is home to both incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto and incoming State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Avila.  Both are members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico between 1929 and 2000.  As Reuters reported, “[c]ritics accused the PRI of turning a blind eye to the drug trade while in power.”

But Nieto, who will be sworn in this December, has pledged to continue the national crackdown on organized crime.  Until last year, he governed the State of Mexico, where both Nezahualcoyotl and Ecatepec are located.

For further information, please see:

Global Post — Mexico Violence: 8 Bullet-Ridden Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico City — 26 October 2012

Fox News Latino — Police Find 6 Bodies in Central Mexico — 25 October 2012

Reuters — Eight Bodies Found Dumped in Mexico City Suburb — 25 October 2012

Seattlepi.com — 8 Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico’s Capital — 25 October 2012