Immigration officer demanded bribes; receives 44 months in prison

Published on Thursday September 20, 2012

Alex Consiglio Staff Reporter

Immigration officer George Gonsalves Bar

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR Former Canadian immigration officer George Gonsalves Barriero, who pleaded guilty to breaching the public trust after demanding bribes from immigration applicants, enters court for his sentencing on Thursday.

Sidnei Ramalho feared for his life after receiving an odd call from his immigration officer. Ramalho, 33, came to Canada from Brazil in 2005 to study English and further his computer systems career. When he applied to stay permanently on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, his application was handled by George Gonsalves Barriero, an immigration officer with Citizenship and Immigration Canada who has since pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching the trust of public office. Barriero, 55, had already demanded bribes of $5,500 from two other immigrants when he used his personal cellphone, against CIC policy, to call Ramalho and demand $2,000 to expedite his application in March 2010. Barriero lost his job in December 2010 and entered the guilty plea in June. On Thursday, at the Ontario Court of Justice in Etobicoke, Justice Andrea Tuck-Jackson sentenced him to 44 months in prison. When Barriero called him, Ramalho initially thought his honesty was being tested, he explained in an interview at his North York apartment a few days before the sentencing. “He said: ‘I want to help you, but you need to help me,’” Ramalho recalled. “‘If you help me, you’re going to have a nice letter come to your home.’” The question left Ramalho trembling, and Barriero, who mentioned something about going on vacation, sensed his nervousness. “‘You’ve never done anything like this before, have you?’” Ramalho remembers being asked before Barriero told him he lived nearby and would swing by to pick up the money. “I don’t know him, I don’t know what he’s capable of,” Ramalho said, reflecting on his thoughts that day. “I was really afraid he could send some guy here to kill me.” He told his immigration consultant about the call and was instructed not to communicate with Barriero any further while the RCMP investigated. “I was shocked because I didn’t expect this to happen in Canada,” said Ramalho. “We haven’t seen the good side of Canada yet.” Since the ordeal, Ramalho has installed cameras in his apartment, extra locks on his door — which he keeps a steel bar behind — and doesn’t answer calls from phone numbers he doesn’t recognize. “When I moved here, I had the perception I was leaving corruption behind,” said Ramalho. “The irony is that I came here to meet it.” Barriero sobbed Thursday as Justice Tuck-Jackson noted he was motivated by greed and used the bribe money for a vacation in Greece. “This category of offence strikes at the heart of the integrity of government,” said Tuck-Jackson, adding that “the reputation of Canada as a nation which will not tolerate corruption in government” must be upheld.