Alberta: Fr John Lipinski, Whose Firm Was Convicted of Abuse and Fraud, May Return to Active Duty
It appears that a certain EP priest in Alberta whose business was involved in exploiting refugees and immigrant workers may soon be returning to active clerical duty.
Fr John Lipinski, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Ecumenical Patriarchate, through his Alberta firm, Kihew, advertised and searched in Polish papers for immigrants and refugees for available electrical positions. The firm would then charge high rates while paying the immigrants low wages under threat of deportation.
The investigation found that Kihew placed ads in a Polish newspaper and on a website to recruit European welders and machinists to come to work in Canada.
The agreed statement of facts said once the foreign workers were recruited by Kihew, Paul Myshaniuk, on behalf of Lakeland College, sent letters to Canada Immigration accepting the foreign workers as students. The workers were allowed into the country on student visas and Kihew forwarded the $215,000 to Lakeland.
The first group of 60 foreign workers arrived in December, 2005.
A few of them attended some ESL classes but none attended the welding classes they were required to under their student visas.
Court was told Kihew made about one million dollars through the scheme.The court found that Kihew contracted out the foreign workers to several businesses at a high hourly rate of pay but the workers themselves made very little.
Individual charges were dropped against Lipinski and his family in exchange for naming the corporation liable. Lipinski was a 49 percent shareholder in the firm.
Meanwhile, since formal charges were not personally applied against him, there is now talk of reinstating him to a parish.
We hope not– but if he is, we unfortunately wouldn’t be surprised.
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