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Friday, August 13, 1999

Diane Francis
National Post

Nick Didlick, the Vancouver Sun Some of the women and children among the 130 illegal Chinese immigrants peer out from the rear deck of the Coast Guard ship the Arrow Post as they are transported to the Port Hardy dock.

Ottawa remains frozen at the switch even after I warned on July 25 in this column that a second derelict ship with illegal aliens was on its way. As we all know, it arrived this week.

Now I learn that a third ship is heading for North America. Worse than that, dozens more stolen boats are being assembled in a staging ground controlled by criminal organizations in Guam and Saipan now that Ottawa has shown complete incompetence at handling the situation.

Triads, or Chinese ethnic gangs, are involved and are making fortunes smuggling narcotics and people out of China, sources say.

"The U.S. Coast Guard has identified another ship, now in international waters," says a source. "The boat is heading for the United States and word is that the Coast Guard will force it away and into Canadian waters." Elinor Caplan, Ottawa's new Immigration Minister, must move on this immediately and invoke her authority to collect and deport all those Chinese who have come here so far. She should also completely revamp the so-called "refugee" process in this country, which is being abused by illegals and their smuggling accomplices.

New Zealand and Australia passed emergency laws in the past few months that allows them to turn away ships and their cargo. These countries suffered from a recent surge in attempts to smuggle boat people from all over the world.

The boat incidents are simply a small, but high-profile example of how Ottawa has completely mismanaged the refugee process. Why do we let scoundrels bring persons into our country to fraudulently claim refugee status and let them get away with it?

Worse than the stupidity of our government is what Chinese government officials call the unfortunate "pull facto." At a recent secret meeting in the Fujian province with Chinese government officials, Canadian immigration representatives were told that China wants this smuggling to end because of what happens to the migrant victims, but cannot unless Canada fixes its process.

Illegal aliens can ruin their lives because they make a Faustian pact with some of the most evil persons in the world. The criminals smuggle people for fees of $30,000 (US) -- money these people do not have. Like loan sharks, these crooks lend this money and charge usurious interest rates on this "loan." One way these poor people can work off this loan is by getting involved in criminal activities.

In other words our refugee policy has resulted in the importation of a criminal element that was not here and need not have arrived.

Doesn't anyone in Ottawa have a cortex and understand that the reason why some Honduran "refugees" have become involved in drug trafficking in Vancouver, and addictions are spreading like cancer, is that this is one way they can work off their loans to the Colombian cocaine and heroin cartels.

The toll in human terms of this naive and stupid policy is enormous.

I am the first to admit that Canada should do its bit to help refugees, but only genuine ones.

People suffering in refugee camps qualify, not persons who enter our country without documents then claim to be refugees.

Through sheer incompetence, Ottawa is ruining lives, exposing Canadians to grave risks and financing the creation of a criminal class that will hurt this country for years to come.

If these boatloads are not deported to send a message to others on their way -- and the refugee process revamped -- then the government of Canada should be sued by the provinces, municipalities, taxpayer organizations and other victims of refugee crimes. I will personally contribute to such a lawsuit.

RELATED SITES:

(Each link opens a new window)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada

The brand-new white paper on immigration policy

Statistics Canada: Immigration and Citizenship

Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where Canadians came from.