Defunct school focus of Toronto terror probe College's paperwork used

TORONTO - Luther Samuel, the man authorities say sold fraudulent school papers allowing members of a possible al-Qaeda sleeper cell to take root in Canada, long felt a duty to bring career training to the city's black community.

When he purchased the Ottawa Business College, a private vocational school, in 1997, he quickly moved it from a downtown Ottawa address to a low-rent stretch of Scarborough to be close to the black and ethnic neighbourhoods he knew, former associates said.

Within two years, however, his school had degenerated into a mere diploma mill, selling fraudulent documents and allowing 400 foreign nationals into Canada illegally, authorities allege.

At least five of the 20 men arrested this month in the sweeping anti-terror probe used the school to enter Canada; at least seven others used the school's documents to extend their stay here. Several others have roommates or associates who used the school's paperwork.

The links are so pronounced that the name of the federal operation, Project Thread, likely comes from the school being the common thread to the network.

"There's a commonality amongst a certain group and it comes out as a result of this investigation into Ottawa Business College," Edith Decaire, a federal government lawyer, said at a hearing for one of the accused.

It is an ignoble end to a school that was founded by an eager educator and later bought by Mr. Luther with an eye to aiding a community he saw as neglected.

"He was really hoping to draw from the Jamaican and ethnic community in Toronto," said a source who knew Mr. Samuel when he was relocating his school to Toronto.

"He wanted to have a school run by blacks with black teachers who understood the problems of black students and could make sure the students were appreciated," said the source, who did not wish to be named because of the national security concerns in the case.

An accountant by training, Mr. Samuel is remembered as a slight, black man with a delicate Caribbean accent who always wore smart business attire -- a dress shirt, tie and suit jacket.

He worked for years as an accounting and bookkeeping teacher at a number of private career colleges in Toronto, later adding administrative duties to his portfolio.

Mr. Samuel dreamed of owning his own school, but he did not start the Ottawa Business School from scratch.

The school was founded in 1996 by John Plevritis, a jovial man who opened a small business school in downtown Ottawa. He soon found it difficult to attract students because they were ineligible for the government student loan programs.

(A school must have already had a graduating class and meet several other criteria before its students are eligible to apply for student assistance.)

Mr. Plevritis went shopping for a school that was already qualified and bought Retter Business College, a school with a good reputation that was founded in 1975.

Mr. Plevritis, in turn, sold the Ottawa Business College to Mr. Samuel in 1997, according to records at the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Mr. Samuel moved the school to Toronto, setting up in a commercial strip in Scarborough, despite the confusion of a school with an Ottawa name having a Toronto address.

Ministry of training officials inspected the school and approved it offering five registered programs: accounting and computers, business administration, computer support specialist, administrative assistant and computer programming.

By the start of 1999, however, Mr. Samuel was selling documents to foreign students that could be used to obtain a student visa, federal authorities allege. The visas allows foreign nationals into Canada for a specific period to attend school.

For between $400 and $500, immigrants were buying a letter from the school stating that the student was accepted at the school and that tuition had been paid, authorities allege.

Mr. Samuel and an employee, named as Wilde West in hearing documents, worked to provide the documents regardless of whether tuition was actually paid, regardless of whether the student was actually taking a course, immigration hearings heard.

In fact, the paperwork was issued even after the school lost all of its provincial registration and licensing and offered no classes.

"It was determined that the Ottawa Business College was not a legitimate school. It was determined the Ottawa Business College had been issuing fraudulent documents to foreign students in order to aid them to obtain visas to come to Canada and to maintain status in Canada under student authorizations," said L. Lasowski, an immigration adjudicator at a detention review for one of the accused.

Both Mr. Samuel and Ms. West have co-operated with investigators, documents say. Several hearing records referred to signed declarations and admissions from the pair.

In January, 2001, Mr. Samuel sold the school to a man named John Roberts but stayed on as an administrator, according to ministry records.

All registered schools must post a bond with the ministry so that student tuition can be refunded in the event of bankruptcy. In July, 2001, the company that provided the college with the school's bond pulled it.

With no replacement bond provided, the business difficulties finally caught up to the school.

"In September, 2001, the Ottawa Business College's registration was revoked because it didn't provide us with a new bond," said Dave Ross, spokesman for the ministry of training.

It did not, however, stop the bogus documents from being sold, authorities allege. When a man in Mexico applied for a student visa to Canada using the school's name, the immigration official could not confirm the school existed.

Bob Runciman, Ontario's Minister of Public Safety and Security, has said the case highlights the need for the province and the federal government to examine how schools are registered and student visas issued.

Canada is already polluted with 100,000s of jamaicans sucking off the welfare system,spreading drugs,crime and guns...thanks to le frog fag trudeau!

now a jamaican imports and promotes terrorists!

and the media ,politicians,and business leaders wonder why Toronto and Ontario is in dire straights!

American universities are also a major contributor to terrorist activities. Many of the 9/11 killers entered the US under student visas.

Though foreign students pay higher tuition, tuition provides only a small portion of the operating capital for state universities. The rest is paid by the taxpayers.

These same universities have been training Iranian, Saudi, Pakistani, Syrian and Iraqi engineers for the last 30 years ( I know, I sat in classes with them). These same engineers have either returned home to assist their terrorists regimes or remained here to displace American engineers. Some have even gone home and now returned via H-1B visas!

Thanks to the greedy traitors running American's Universities for supplying the brain power to put us all under the heel of Islam.

I'll tell what's worse: ALL of this news is "under the radar" as far as the US Media conglomerates are concerned.

There has hardly been ONE WORD about the 19 suspected terrorists arrested, or about the 12 still at large.

No one got overly interested when 2 (probable) cell members were arrested by the TSA at Seattle/Tacoma airport, as they tried to book 1 way flights to JFK. One had a NY driver's license;the other a British Columbia license.(Both licenses phoney, by the way.)

The attitude I've seen is : " Go tune in a reality show or a ballgame, or buy another car. Don't worry ! Be happy ! "

The sad thing is you'll see a LOT of that attitude right here on Free Republic !

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