An estimated 5000 women arrive in Canada every year to
serve as caregivers. These women, mostly escaping poverty
in the Philippines, need to support the families they left
behind and dream of a starting a new life in Canada. For
many that becomes a reality, but others become victims of
fraud, exploitation and abuse. THE NANNY BUSINESS profiles
a few of the nannies and the ordeals they endured after
arriving.

The nannies arrive in Canada under the government's Live-
In Caregiver Program that gives them temporary visas but
stipulates that they must spend a minimum of two years
working and living in the homes of Canadian families before
they can qualify for residency status. For many of these
women that two year period can be a nightmare locking them
into households where intolerable work demands are made,
including inhumanly long work days for below minimum wage,
and subjected to verbal and even physical abuse.

THE NANNY BUSINESS traces the story of Edelyn Pineda who
left her three children behind and paid thousands of
dollars to a recruitment agency in Canada to make the
arrangements and book her with a family. She arrived to
discover that the agent had taken her fee but the
"employer" who signed her contract was not interested in
her services. "I can't believe this has happened to me,"
Edelyn told the filmmakers the day after she arrived, with
no money and no place to stay. "I will never get over
this." Joelina Maluto came to Canada after working in Hong
Kong and the Middle East because "I heard Canada was a good
country, and after two years I could bring my children
here." Instead, she arrived to find she had no job and was
forced to live in her agent's basement with 16 other
nannies for the next 2 and a half months. When the agent
finally got her a job, the employer forced her to work 18
hour days.

Edelyn and Joelina were among several nannies brave enough
to go public about their experiences in the hope of forcing
change. Their stories are put into wider context by
journalist Susan McClelland, whose own search for a nanny
led her to this story, and who's subsequent article "Nanny
Abuse" for Walrus Magazine won an Amnesty Award.

Susan hopes that increasing publicity about the plight of
nannies under this program will bring change. "I've written
about sex trafficking, but caregiver trafficking is
something we are now finding out about too," she says.
"These women are put in very vulnerable situations and we
need to protect them from exploitation and cruelty----they
need to have the same rights that every employee in this
country enjoys."

THE NANNY BUSINESS is a Bishari Films production
commissioned by Global Television. It was written and
directed by Shelley Saywell and produced by Deborah Parks.
For more information about Bishari, please go to:
http://www.bisharifilms.com/

The film takes some informed perspective from Canadian journalist
Susan McClelland, whose own search for a nanny resulted in the
Walrus magazine article Nanny Abuse, which won a coveted Amnesty
Award.The personal stories of The Nanny Business are heartbreaking…
More than once, the nannies' plight is referred to as "caregiver
trafficking," which seems a sadly apt description. For some Filipino
women, the great Canadian dream has become a nightmare.
From The Globe and Mail.