Toronto:
Former beauty queen-turned-lawmaker of Indian-origin, Ruby Dhalla, alleged to have exploited her three domestic helps, told a Canadian Parliamentary committee that she never hired, employed or sponsored foreign-born caregivers and that allegations of mistreatment in her family's home are "false and unsubstantiated."
Two nannies have alleged they were required to work long hours, perform menial tasks and forced to surrender their passports while caring for Dhalla's mother last year.
But the 35-year-old Sikh MP refuted their claims, arguing she was rarely home in Brampton and that her brother supervised the two workers.
"I, like many others, am trying to wonder why these caregivers have come forward 15 months later after leaving our home on what I thought was good terms," Dhalla told the standing committee for citizenship and immigration in Ottawa.
"I don't know what their motive is," she said.
Dhalla produced boarding passes to prove she was only home for three out of the eleven days that Magdalene Gordo, one of the caregivers, worked for her family. She also produced handwritten receipts to disprove Gordo's claim that she was not paid for work.
"After presenting this evidence it is clear that I, Ruby Dhalla, am not the sponsor, I am not the employer," she said.
The high-profile MP also challenged the caregivers' claims that they were forced to perform hard labour.
She showed the committee a letter from a man who cleared the family's snow as well as receipts from a professional cleaning service that worked at her family's chiropractic clinics.
The only time the woman was deprived of their passports was when her brother was helping them with immigration issues, she added.
Contrary to the nannies' claims of working long hours and shoddy treatment, Dhalla said her family treated all its employees well. On brief occasions when she was at home, she saw caregivers lying on the couch watching television with her mother.
Dhalla, a Miss India-Canada runner-up in 1993, said her mother also often prepared dinner for her domestic helps.