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Monday, August 09, 1999

Martin Loney
National Post

The recent apprehension of 123 illegal immigrants off the coast of Vancouver Island will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. If history is any guide, most of those detained will stay in Canada or move to the United States. The operation's organizers, even if convicted, will escape serious penalties. The 1998 report of Criminal Intelligence Service Canada explained the attractions of the trade to organized crime: "Migrant smuggling offers organized crime groups the double incentive of high returns on investment and relatively minor sentences in the case of conviction."

Asian smuggling rings are not engaged in the altruistic practice of assisting individuals fleeing political persecution, but they do provide one route for those engaged in criminal activity, including, according to the latest CISC report, "prostitution, extortion, drug trafficking and theft." The fact that those released from custody have immediately sought refugee status is good news for lawyers, but highlights the weakness of Canada's refugee determination process. The 1985 decision of Supreme Court of Canada Justice Bertha Wilson, in the Singh case, created a bonanza for lawyers while driving a coach and horses through Canada's efforts to distinguish between genuine refugee claims and the use of such claims to evade immigration controls. According to Judge Wilson, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects every arrival on Canadian soil and entitles any claimant to a full hearing. Transparently bogus refugees could henceforth claim access to free health care, social assistance, legal aid and even a temporary work permit. Judge Wilson's ruling allowed criminals and illegal immigrants to evade immigration controls.

A review of the countries from which "refugees" arrive, urgently fleeing persecution, provides some surprises, including Belgium, Britain, New Zealand, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Chile, Poland and Barbados. The flows change less in response to real world events than to the ingenuity of lawyers in drumming up business. In 1996, Chile contributed 2,824 claimants. By 1999 the numbers had fallen dramatically. Had the political situation in Chile suddenly changed? No, the government belatedly moved to control the influx by introducing visas. Israel has contributed thousands of successful refugee claimants, the overwhelming majority Russians who, having emigrated to Israel under the country's "law of return," decided that they were not Jewish after all and hence faced persecution. Neither the duplicity of the claimants nor the transparent flimsiness of their evidence of persecution gave any pause to the well-paid adjudicators on the Immigration and Refugee Board. Then, suddenly, acceptance rates declined and new arrivals slowed. Had persecution diminished? No, the Canadian Jewish Congress, an organization not to be trifled with, had blown the whistle on the whole scam.

For Czech refugees, 1997 was a good year. Key to the influx was the discovery of the plight of Czech Gypsies. Czech TV featured an interview with a Toronto lawyer, who extolled the merits of Canada's refugee acceptance process. One of the lawyer's Czech clients was filmed eating dinner in the CN Tower restaurant. Obviously the streets of Canada were paved with gold. In no time all economy class seats to Canada, on Czech Airline CSA, were reported to be booked three months ahead. One local council was said to be offering departing Romanies cash advances in return for vacating their apartments.

The rapid growth in organized crime among groups largely comprised of first-generation immigrants gives added urgency to the need for reform. The latest CISC report addresses the growing reach of the Chinese Triads, the increase in violent criminal activity of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian street gangs and the Fukienese organized crime group, which, already dominant in New York, is increasingly active in Toronto. One of the activities of the group is migrant smuggling.

This is not, however, a government for which protecting Canada from crime is a priority. Faced with what the CISC describes as "the threat posed by criminal organizations to the integrity of Canadian seaports of entry" the government disbanded the Ports Canada Police. Career criminals seeking entry can take comfort from the government's instruction to customs and immigration officers not to invade their privacy by asking embarrassing questions about any prior failures, which might have led to a criminal record.

Reform of the IRB would put the many patronage appointees on the street, cause untold hardship to lawyers and outrage the tax-funded immigration and refugee industry. Elinor Caplan, the new Immigration Minister, has emphasized the need to work more closely with immigration lawyers, ethnic groups and non-governmental organizations, groups that, some observers might conclude, already run the department. Canadians looking for substantive reform will be disappointed.

Martin Loney's most recent book is The Pursuit of Division: Race, Gender and Preferential Hiring in Canada.