Open door Canada

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 15, 2001]

In spite of the evidence over the past several weeks of the dangers that mass immigration can and does bring, little has changed in Canada--that open territory for "asylum" seekers, where boats brimming over with illegal immigrants literally wash ashore. Here's an excerpt from an October 11 commentary by Diane Francis in the Financial Post:

Over the weekend, 50 Afghanis and Pakistanis without any identification flew into Toronto's Pearson International Airport and were released automatically after they uttered the magical R-word--refugee. Allowing 50 strangers into our country--and therefore North America--is beyond comprehension, coming as it does after the Americans announced the possibility of retaliatory attacks by followers of terrorist chief Osama bin Laden. Canada could be a target.

They were released even though no one knows who they are. No one knows where they are now. No one knows if they have AIDS or TB. No one knows if they have criminal records or are wanted by police forces elsewhere. No one knows if they are violent, or heroin dealers or petty thieves. I dread what will happen if another terrorist, like the one from Montreal, succeeds in mounting an attack south of the border from the safety of north of the border.

Because Ottawa cannot manage a pop stand, there should be a moratorium on all immigration and refugee landings for at least a year until 27,000 existing deportation orders and thousands of other arrest warrants and hearing notices are executed. "Canada is awash in unexecuted warrants against immigrants and refugees," said a Vancouver police detective.

As for the bunch that arrived this weekend, send them back to Europe, where their flights originated. These people are defrauding our immigration system by claiming they have no identification. This is a lie because they could never have boarded an international flight without credentials.

A Financial Post reader, from Pakistan, called me this week to alert Canadians to another scam by a ring operating out of Cornwall, Ont., and Montreal. There is a black market for the IMM 1000 [immigration permit], he said. Certain Montreal convenience stores run by Pakistanis pay $2,500 per card, then sell them to an organized crime group in Islamabad, where persons with matching gender and age attach them to a phoney passport bearing the same name.

[He said], "Most of them get into the States through Canada because it's so easy to get in here. What some do is fly via Los Angeles or JFK in New York City, show the Canadian immigration document, then pretend to be tired from their journey. They ask permission to stay the night before going to Toronto, which is the usual final destination. The Americans let them go often and they disappear. If they cannot talk their way into staying, they fly on to Toronto or Montreal and are smuggled into the U.S. at Cornwall by the ring."

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