The immigrant flood continues

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views May 6, 2002]

Well, it looks like the mainstream media has finally caught up with Canada's irresponsible and lax immigration policies. For years, concerned Canadians who witnessed and complained about the derelict practices of the Immigration Department have been labeled "racists," "white supremacists" and "xenophobes."

As boatloads of foreigners literally landed on the shores and beaches of Canada, official government policy was to intimidate those Canadians who publicly expressed their outrage. In fact, there are “hate speech” laws in place to make punishment possible for those who speak out too forthrightly. (See I&V commentary of 7/9/01 and 10/15/01.)

Now, after a revealing CBS "60 Minutes" broadcast, on April 28, greater attention is being paid to the possible dangers faced by the United States, as a result of the Canadian government’s stubborn insistence on maintaining open borders. Or, to put it in Lesley Stahl’s words, Canada could become a “potential launching pad for attacks against the United States.”

In her opening remarks, Stahl claimed that, according to Canadian Intelligence, Canada “has become a sanctuary, a staging ground, and a fundraising base for hundreds of terrorists from all over the world. They are drawn to Canada by an immigration system that is the most liberal in the western world, and a social welfare system that gives new meaning to the word ‘generous.’”

Then “60 Minutes” reporter Steve Croft questioned David Harris, a former agent of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Here, in excerpts from the transcript, is some of what Harris had to say:

David Harris: Canada has everything for the discriminating terrorist. It is a convenient place. It is a modern economy, so that you can get money, you can transfer money. You can channel it around the world. You have got a vast migrant population, so you can fit in, be camouflaged in and among those Canadian newcomers.

Steve Croft: In the past decade, Canada has opened its doors to more than 2 million immigrants to keep its economy growing. They have settled into diverse ethnic neighborhoods of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver where Arabic and Farsi are now as likely to be spoken as English or French. Tens of thousands have come from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, and North Africa, and some have brought their radical politics with them.

Harris: We have established through our intelligence services and other means that we have 50 terrorist organizations now on our soil, and a good number of these are world class. They range in skill from the IRA to Hezbullah to Hamas.

Croft: Do you think the people here are targeting the United States?

Harris: There can be no doubt about it. And if you are in the business of destroying the Western world and the United States and everything they represent, you couldn’t have a better jumping off point, could you?

Croft: And the border is wide open.

Harris: That’s it. And it has been a matter of pride to Canada and the United States to have an undefended border, as it’s advertised. Well, everybody knows about this. El Quaida reads the newspapers.

Croft then interviewed Joe Bissett, a former Executive Director of the Canadian Immigration Service who said that Canada “never turns anyone away.”

Joe Bissett: We have the most generous refugee system in the world.

Croft: Too generous?

Bissett: Much too generous.

Croft: What do you have to do to become a refugee in Canada? Do you just walk up to a border guard?

Bissett: You just walk up and say, "I want to make a refugee claim." That’s it.

Croft: Bissett says 44,000 people showed up in Canada last year claiming to be refugees; 15,000 just since September 11.

Bissett: Of those 15,000, 2,500 come from terrorist countries: Algeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Albania, Somalia, Iraq, Iran. Now these people--2,500 of them--are in Canada, most of them we don’t know who the hell they are.

In more news about immigration and Canada, the Toronto Star (4/17/02) reports that last year Canada exceeded its original immigration target by taking in 25,386 more people than planned, for a total of 250,386. Immigration Minister Denis Coderre welcomed the news as “a timely reminder that Canada needs immigrants if it is to continue to grow and prosper.”

And on May 2, the National Post reported on the country’s ineffective system for tracking thousands of immigrants who are known to have tuberculosis:

A probe of immigrants and refugees arriving in Ontario, where half of the nation's new-comers settle, found that few of those requiring medical intervention as a condition of their entry were tracked by health or immigration officials and even fewer received treatment for the potentially deadly and highly contagious lung disease.

In fact, researchers who worked through more than 1,000 cases of active TB among immigrants found only one patient who was flagged for medical surveillance who had actually received adequate treatment to prevent the spread of the disease.

The report says the failure of the tracking system "may place the Canadian population at risk." In 80% of cases, there is no record of adherence to medical surveillance requirements at all even though they were displaying symptoms of active TB.

Once the leading cause of death among children, TB was almost eradicated in many Western countries but continues to be rampant in much of the developing world. As immigration and travel between countries continue to climb, it is once again a global concern.

Dr. James Brunton, director of the Infectious Diseases Division of the University of Toronto's Department of Medicine, who was also part of the study team, said there were cases of immigrants handing over clean chest X-rays that were clearly pictures of someone else.

He said Canada should pay special attention to people arriving from countries with the highest TB infection rates and perhaps have on-site screening for most suspect cases at arrival ports.

"In Canada, people are always worried about discriminating against people, but at some point you have to say, 'Look, where it this stuff coming from?' " he said.

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