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Monday, August 09,
1999 Refugee policies are good news for
lawyers
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. |
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