Posted on 01/21/2005 10:54:30 AM PST by GMMAC
Canadian citizenship devalued:
National sovereignty sacrificed to twin gods of tolerance and multiculturalism
The Edmonton Journal
Fri 21 Jan 2005
Page: A18
Section: Opinion
Byline: Lorne Gunter
Underneath all the salacious tales emerging from the favours-for-visas scandal involving former immigration minister Judy Sgro is an even more disturbing revelation: Canada's immigration and refugee system no longer serves the nation's interests.
The system's mission ought to ensure that only safe immigrants, capable of economic self-sufficiency, and genuinely endangered refugees are admitted. Yet the immigration and refugee bureaucracies seem to exist more to stoke the multicultural ambitions of Canada's liberal establishment (and prove what tolerant, progressive people the members of that establishment are), sustain the immigration-law industry and the scores of lawyers whose fees are often paid by taxpayers, and feed Liberal voter bases in ethnic enclaves.
Preserving and promoting the country's democratic and economic interests seem to be way down the list.
My cynical assessment is not driven solely by the details of the Sgro case, although they are bad enough: The minister in charge of our immigration bureaucracy allegedly thought nothing of promising entry into this country to Eastern European and Caribbean strippers and a South Asian credit card fraudster in return for a little help stuffing envelopes, hammering in lawn signs and knocking on doors at election time.
This reveals just how little value our establishment places on citizenship.
Since citizenship is (or should be) the highest honour a state can bestow on an outsider, you would think a politician would ask tens of thousands of dollars for a wink-wink, nudge-nudge free ride to permanent residency.
But over the past couple of decades, our political establishment, aided by the courts, has devalued Canadian citizenship. They have permitted everyone to enter the country and made it virtually impossible to expel them. For instance, the pizza parlour owner in Sgro's latest scandal has been in this country without authorization for 16 years.
Citizenship has been so cheapened that Sgro allegedly thinks nothing of pencil-whipping through the refugee appeal of a convicted fraudster, who is under a deportation order, in return for a few boxes of pizza for her campaign workers. (I say allegedly, because Sgro may be innocent in the latest row. Harjit Singh, her accuser, is not the most credible individual.)
It is two other revelations in the Sgro-Singh case, though, that impel me to conclude that no one is in charge of our immigration and refugee policy.
On Thursday, the Globe and Mail's intrepid investigative reporter, Marina Jimenez (formerly of The Journal), reported that Singh had left Canada and re-entered it as many as 22 times during the 1990s.
That sounds unremarkable on the surface; businessmen and women come and go from the country all the time.
But Singh was under a deportation order at the time and most of his travels were to India, the country from which he was claiming asylum. If Singh feared for his life or physical well-being if he were sent back to India, why was it he was unafraid to return there on business while bucking the refugee system here?
And how is it that a deportee is able to get back into the country nearly two dozen times? Either no one is watching -- as in, there is no list of deportees for customs officers to check when people enter Canada -- or our system has become so polluted by political correctness that officials and adjudicators consider it unfair to keep someone out, even if a court has ordered him out, so long as he is appealing his status.
It also appears immaterial to Singh's refugee claim that his travels disprove his fears of what might happen were he repatriated.
Singh has been convicted of crimes in India and was part of one of the largest credit card fraud schemes in Canadian history. In connection with the credit card crime, police found in Singh's home 17 stolen Indian passports, 24 blank work permits, 11 Indian immigration stamps and numerous blank immigration forms.
Court documents claim Singh had offered to bring Indian immigrants into Canada illegally for between $10,000 and $15,000. (Apparently, he places a higher value on Canadian residency than Sgro.)
Wednesday, it was revealed that the Crown will not prosecute Singh in the credit card case -- he was convicted civilly instead -- because government lawyers were unable to guarantee the safety of witnesses' relatives in India.
Since when is that our business? Since when is the safety of witnesses' relatives on the other side of the world the determining factor in whether justice is done in Canada?
Not only has the Sgro scandal illuminated just how much the inmates are in charge of Canada's immigration asylum, it has also shown how much of our national sovereignty has been sacrificed to the twin gods of tolerance and multiculturalism.
In the name of tolerance, Canada no longer claims the right to kick out even the rotten apples. Those apples' rights are considered paramount to our national nterests.
Lorne Gunter
Columnist/Editorial Writer, National Post
Columnist, Edmonton Journal
E-mail: lgunter@shaw.ca
bump
While the system there may need 'fixing',
there have been a number of cases recently, of refugees being deported to countries where they will be inprisoned, tortured or killed when they arrive.
The author seems to have ignored those.
Americans should take this to heart.
What happened to Rome also...
Americans should take this to heart.
There are plenty of people bor n in America that place very little value on their citizenship. THey spend all their time trying to replace their American citizenship with world citizenship.
Drop over to DU any day for samples.
Interesting article. As a Canadian, do you see any changes in national outlook as a result of this kind of scandal? Do you think the freeing of Canada's airwaves (ie the coming of Fix) will help? Is the reaction to this kind of thing regional - outrage only in the Western Provinces? Thanks in advance.
Looks like the Canadians are positioning themselves to erect a barrier to immigration by the Democrats.
The Democrats had better make their moves now, or they will be stuck with us.
Oops, I meant "the coming of Fox." Freudian slip.
bump
I think he was trying to make a point. There's alot of fraud and abuse of our system, and refugee laws too. Sensenbrenner is intent on fixing it.
If the people are criminals in their country then they have to face up to the punishments of that country. It isn't up to Canada or the US to take in everyone in the whole world who's country is evil or whose citizens think that the way to escape punishment is to flee to a western country.
" Drop over to DU any day for samples."
I log on there every few days to see what they're saying and I can't believe those people think they're the elite of society in America. Most of the posts I see over there are of the "My pussycat had kittens and I need a hug" type. These people are really strange.
"why don't the refugees and the people in the country involved do something about their governement if they are torturing people?If the people are criminals in their country then they have to face up to the punishments of that country."
Gee, you're a sweetheart.
I guess the next person (criminal) who's able to escape N. Korea should just be marched back there, huh? That's right, being a criminal there means someone who says he's too weak from hunger to participate in Kim Jung-Il's birthday parade. That certainly deserves prison time. And no sympathy from us. sarcasm/off.
Would someone just tell those N.Koreans to do something already? Sheeesh. What's taking so long? sarcasm/off
I was there earlier today and was reading a thread about the Bush twins. The best I can say is that it was disgusting.
Amazingly these very same people regard themselves as the hyper-intelligent, sensitive elites of our society.
Your comment is revealing.
I have surprisingly little sympathy for North Koreans or many of the other so called enslaved people of the world. There are 23 million North Koreans ground under the heels of approximately 360,000 communist party members. Similarly 30 million Apghans were bullied by 10,000 members of the Taliban. In Iran the Mullahs and their minions number about 700,000 bullying a population of 70 million.
My point it this. Freedom is something that has a price. The numbers of people cited in my example above can only be bullied and trampled WITH THEIR CONSENT or put another way by the consent of passive acceptance of their enslavement.
Freedom is something that every human wants but it never, never, never comes without a price. Someone has to pay the purchase price and the ongoing maintenance. These peoples will have to bear some the responsibility of the price of their own freedom.
Yeah, some people are definitely overreaching. N. Koreans never consented communist rule. It was thrust upon them by Stalin's goons.
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