The Crown stayed Mikhael Akin's 2023 human trafficking charges, and he says employers must vet labour agencies themselves
Human trafficking charges laid against an Ontario scrap metal business owner in May 2023 have been stayed by the Crown and are now permanently nullified, according to legal documentation reviewed by Canadian Occupational Safety, and the case has left Mikhael Akin with a blunt message for other employers who rely on staffing agencies: verify everything yourself.
Akin, owner of Georgetown, Ont.-based 251419 Ontario Inc., a scrap metal processing company, was one of four people charged following the Ontario Provincial Police's Project Foxtrot investigation, first reported by Canadian Occupational Safety in May 2023, into the suspected trafficking of Mexican labourers who were housed in substandard conditions while working at recycling facilities in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec.
A warrant, a search and two years living under charges
Akin says he sourced workers through an employment agency in 2023 to fill a labour contract because he did not have time to train apprentices for the job.
"So the situation was, we need to fill up the contract, and I'm going to the employment agency, ask them for help if they have any people available, because I didn't have the time to teach anybody or take the apprentices for that type of job," Akin said. "On my end, I understand I don't have to ask them anything, because as I understand the employment agency is fully responsible for the people who they hire."
He says he had no warning before officers arrived at his home with a warrant.
"They searched my house, searched my cars. It was a shock…my wife called and told me the police were at the house and searching our house," Akin said. "I called my lawyer right away. My lawyer advised me to go to the police station. I went to the police station and I was arrested."
He describes the more than two years he spent under the charges, before they were stayed in July 2025, in stark terms.
"Experiences of hell. I lost my best customers at that time. I lost practically everything," he said. "Any major banks, I was cut off, I wasn't allowed to even hold the personal account at those banks."
What the resolution documents show
In an Aug. 19, 2026, letter, Akin's lawyer, Aaron Spektor, confirmed the Crown stayed all charges against Akin on July 4, 2025, in a Brampton court. Under Ontario court procedure, a stay that is not reopened within one year is deemed nullified; Spektor's letter states that threshold passed on July 4, 2026, meaning the case cannot be reopened and Akin has no further charges pending anywhere in Canada.
A Halton Regional Police Service criminal record and judicial matters check dated Aug. 31, 2026, independently returned negative results for Akin, finding no record in the RCMP's national repository or in Halton's local indices.
Akin said he has had no contact with the three other individuals charged in the investigation since being released on bail in May 2023.
Lessons for employers who rely on staffing agencies
Looking back, Akin says the assumption that an agency's legal obligations extended to protecting the hiring business was a costly one.
"As an employer, you have to check the employment agency where you're hiring the people, to make sure everything is legal, or they have to submit legal papers for the people that they hire," he said. "Otherwise, it's going to be the same story like me."
Ontario has since tightened oversight of the sector. The province's 2023 licensing requirement for temporary help agencies and recruiters now requires agencies to hold a licence to legally supply workers to Ontario businesses, and it is illegal for employers to knowingly use an unlicensed agency. Enforcement against recruiters who skirt these rules is also increasing; the Canada Border Services Agency levied a $70,000 fine against a recruiter for illegally hiring foreign nationals earlier in 2026.
Rebuilding without an agency
Akin says he has stopped using staffing agencies entirely and now works only with people he has known for years.
"You don't know who you hire from the employment agency. They didn't give you any papers," he said. "Most of my guys, it's guys who have worked with me for the last 20 years. I work with my own guys."
He says the ordeal affected his wife and two children as much as it did him, and that he is now rebuilding the reputation of a business he started in 1993.
"We learn from our mistakes," Akin said.
Canadian Occupational Safety's original May 2023 report on the arrests remains accurate as of its publication date. This article reflects the subsequent resolution of the charges against Mikhael Akin only.
