"Brazilian says he was deported after blowing whistle on Winnipegger who illegally hired foreign workers,"

A Brazilian man says he was misled into working illegally in Winnipeg based on the promise he would eventually get a work permit.

Ighor Santos, 27, says he was ordered to leave the country after blowing the whistle on the man who recruited him and other foreign nationals for a construction job in the city's Leila North neighbourhood...

"I was, of course, sad because I tried to [do] the right thing … to avoid this to happen to me, because none of this was my intention," Santos said in an interview from São Paulo.

Gurwinder Singh Ahluwalia, 43, of Winnipeg pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized employment of foreign nationals in contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act as part of a plea deal that avoided additional counts being brought up against him last week.

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Crown prosecutor Matthew Sinclair said during last week's hearing that many of the people working on the site were unaware of Canadian laws that would protect them, which made them vulnerable to exploitation.

Workers endured poor conditions, got low wages or missed payments, and lacked Workplace Safety and Health protections granted to those working legally, the prosecutor said.

Santos said Ahluwalia had offered $32 an hour while he was still in Ireland, but the promised wages kept dropping until he got his first payment, when he received $15 an hour for his work.

Ahluwalia bumped his wages up to $18 an hour after he complained, Santos said. He was paid in cash at first, but later on got e-transfers.

The Brazilian man said the payments were regularly late and the foreign workers — from Mexico and Brazil — were often asked to work overtime and were subject to verbal abuse.

Santos said he worked nine to 10 hours a day, mostly lifting heavy objects. He said he didn't get protective equipment like gloves until he asked for them. Money for the gloves was taken from his pay, Santos said.

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