Immigration – Our “Future”?

Writing in the National Post of April 3, 1999, Diane Francis says: “Canada has let in 29,107 retired people … as immigrants (presumably sponsored) since 1990. This number has been dramatically reduced since I began writing about this nonsense in the early 1990s. But it’s still possible to get in as a retiree then get Canadian pension and health benefits. QUESTION: How many billions has this cost us in unnecessary social costs?” Well, let’s see.

Canada’s number-one source country — China — is presently being touted as a tremendous source of youthful immigrants who will pay for our pensions when the time comes. And yet, Immigration Canada’s own material suggests just the reverse. “Despite the fact that most immigrants from China are relatively recent arrivals in Canada, the Chinese immigrant population is older, on average, than the overall immigrant and Canadian-born populations. In 1991, 22% of all immigrants from China were aged 65 and over, compared with 18% of all immigrants and 10% of people born in Canada.

[Note that the elderly in ALL immigrant groups greatly outnumber the Canadian-born. Again, in direct contravention to what we’re told] … In contrast, only 8% of immigrants from China were under age 25, compared with 15% of all immigrants and 39% of the Canadian-born population. … In 1990, transfer payments [that is, taxpayers’ money via one government department for another] represented 53% of all income of immigrants from China aged 65 and over. … As well, the share of the income of Chinese immigrant seniors coming from transfer payments was greater than that for their counterparts in the all immigrant and Canadian-born populations. [sic]” (A Profile of Immigrants from China in Canada, Dept of Citizenship and Immigration) “China has become the leading country of origin for immigrants to Canada: 26,677 Chinese immigrants arrived in 1998.” (Migration News, Vol. 6, No. 4, April, 1999)

Refugee Horror Stories

Years ago, when Canada won the UN award for our work involving refugees, our acceptance rate was 20 per cent. What will the UN “give” us when we break 100? “Canada has become the ‘laughingstock of the world’ … says Mike Prue, former immigration official … now a Toronto city councillor. … A few years ago at an international forum attended by countries who signed the United Nations’ protocol on refugees, a paper was circulated with the percentage of refugees allowed in on a country by country basis. ‘The U.S. had 4% acceptance, Mexico 3%, the U.K. 7%, Holland was at 12%, and Canada was 84%,’ he recalled. ‘Somebody stood up and said, Our Canadian representative stood up and said no, the figure was 84%, and the whole room broke up into laughter. …

‘The refugee criteria here are considered bizarre by the rest of the world.’ … The people adjudicating these matters have become increasingly incompetent, ranging from a totally inept librarian promoted to a judge who had to be specially tutored, to inappropriate appointees from ethnic lobby groups or others who just want to facilitate entry for members of their community. … My personal favourite is the seven-year appointment by Brian Mulroney of his college roommate’s wife as a ‘judge’. … ‘For instance, there were tens of thousands of Portuguese refugees who claim they were discriminated against and wanted refugee status because they were Jehovah’s Witnesses,’ said Prue.

‘The official church in Portugal said there were less than 1,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Portugal and they were all accounted for in church records.’ Even so, Canada ‘processed’ these tiresome, fraudulent, applications. … ‘Even in China, we let 70% in. Women have even been allowed to stay in Canada because of the one-child policy in mainland China,’ he said. … ‘If you call the police and say you are beaten up or because you can’t have a second kid you can get into Canada. There is no test of credibility.’ … There were Sri Lankan horror stories. ‘Because we weren’t allowed to take fingerprints, there was a guy in a Swiss jail for heroin and cocaine smuggling. He was in jail and in the meantime his wife claimed refugee status. She was allowed to stay. And via a Ministerial order in Canada the husband was allowed to come here and stay because it was ruled he was not to be separated from the family.” ( National Post, March 13, 1999)

“All people who make refugee claims in Canada are fingerprinted and there are some 140,000 refugee prints on file with the RCMP. Immigration officials check new prints with those on file to avoid people making duplicate claims fraudulently. … Immigration must be forced to check the prints of every single refugee claimant with the FBI or the countries of origin. …

It’s amazing that, despite the evidence of refugee riff raff entering both our borders, that fingerprints are not checked. It should be a national priority. It’s disappointing that even when the technology exists to do the job, Immigration officials are the gang that can’t shoot straight. … Immigrants and their sponsored relatives should also be fingerprinted and thoroughly checked — at entirely their own expense — not at Canada’s, in my opinion. That’s because it’s a privilege to live here. It’s not a right.” (Diane Francis, Financial Post, April 24, 1999)

.. CFRIC’s Immigration in Pictures to see the effect of immigration on Canadian cities

The Khalsa Connection

When Paul Fromm underwent the ordeal that eventually led to his dismissal from his teaching post, nearly 2,000 former students were canvassed: “Had Mr. Fromm allowed his politics to enter the classroom?” There were no complaints. Imagine. In a quarter century teaching, Paul had not made a single enemy. His enemies were all outside the classroom, busy lobbying to have this “danger” removed. Where are all the “concerned parties” in B.C.? “A suspected Sikh terrorist who was deported to the United States this week has identified a director of a private school in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey as the leader of the Babbar Khalsa International in Canada. … The federal government considers Babbar Khalsa to be a terrorist group.

…Davinder Singh, a California-based BKI leader who was denied entry to Canada this week because of his position with the group, told immigration officials that the director of Surrey’s Khalsa School, which has classes from kindergarten to Grade 10, was his contact in British Columbia. In an interview with immigration at a border crossing a week ago, Singh, identified Gurdev Singh Gill, who is also known as Kala Baba, as the Canadian leader of the BKI. … Mr. Gill, of Surrey, is listed as a director of the Satnam Education Society, which receives $2.5-million from the B.C. government every year to run the Surrey school and another in Vancouver. … Rick McNeill, an immigration officer, said in Mr. Singh’s hearing this week ‘an intelligence source indicated that Mr. Singh was coming to Canada to meet with other Babbar Khalsa members.’ In evidence entered at the hearing, Babbar Khalsa International was described as ‘the most feared of the Sikh factions representing the hard-core militants.’ … Talwinder Singh Parmar, the group’s founder and a former Vancouver area resident, was the No. 1 suspect in the 1985 Air India bombing.” (National Post, March 13, 1999)

Immigration in Other Countries

In Great Britain — Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has introduced a new bill to reduce the annual £500 million in “refugee” processing delays. “There were 4,000 applicants in 1988, and 46,000 last year. … Under the proposals, which will come into force by April 2001, social security benefits to asylum-seekers will be scrapped and replaced with vouchers to be exchanged at shops for food and clothing. … [Other measures include plans] to deal with applications within two months, and hear any appeal within the next four months. If that appeal is turned down, the applicant will be deported.” (London Times, February 10, 1999) “Under the Government’s plan, any asylum-seeker who seeks to bring a judicial review will not be able to stay in state-funded hostels or housing or receive vouchers to be exchanged for food or clothing at local shops. They will be forced to rely on family or friends for support or risk being destitute. … The Home Office is concerned that legal aid is being misused by asylum-seekers bringing court actions to spin out their applications.” (London Times, February 18, 1999)

In the U.S. — The Immigration and Naturalisation Service has been trying to deport the “LA 8” since 1987. “The INS believed that they were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist group according to the State Department. Their deportation has been blocked repeatedly by federal judges who agreed with the LA 8 that their activities in the US were protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. … [Last month’s] Supreme Court decision eliminates this method of delaying deportation hearings by upholding the 1996 IIRIRA [Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act] provision that says: ‘No court shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim by any alien’ who is slated for deportation.” (Migration News, Vol. 6, No. 3, March, 1999)

In Australia — The government “would consider asking some tourists to pay a bond before entering the country in a bid to reduce the number of illegal immigrants, Philip Ruddock, the immigration minister, said yesterday. Mr. Ruddock said there were as many as 55,000 illegal immigrants in Australia at any time.” (National Post, March 8, 1999) “Mr. Ruddock said that since 1993-94, the number of new refugee related applications to the Courts jumped dramatically from 53 a year, to 470 last year. This figure is expected to reach 500 by the end of 1999. … ‘Any single Protection Visa claimant whose application is refused who then applies to the Refugee Review Tribunal, appeals to the Federal Court, has one associated intervention request, and is then located, detained and removed from Australia, costs the taxpayer a minimum of $20,500 [Australian].’ …

‘These figures show the extent to which Australia’s legal system is being abused by people who have no right to be here,’ Mr. Ruddock said. ‘Litigation costs [$6 million in 1995] are escalating as people repeatedly seek to have their negative protection decisions overturned.'” (Migration media release 42/99, March 7, 1999 – Gov’t. of Australia) Australia has also slashed family reunification levels: “Philip Ruddock said he might cap the programme at 500 [from a high of 7,580 in 1996-97]. Ministers argue the cost to the taxpayer of supporting elderly migrants has soared. Tighter controls introduced in November enforce a means test to ensure children can support their parents when they arrive. A larger health bond is necessary to ensure that they are not a burden on the welfare system. This amounts to A$16,000 [Cdn$15,500] for two parents, Immigration Department figures show.” (South China Morning Post, March 12, 1999)

In Hong Kong — The unrepentant city-state lays the blame for an upsurge in social discord squarely at the feet of mainland Chinese immigrants in a recent human-rights report to the United Nations. “About 160,000 mainlanders settled in the SAR [Hong Kong] between July 1995 and June last year. But one-fifth of them could not integrate into society as they could not speak Cantonese or English. Family violence often arose because most Hong Kong men were not as rich as their mainland wives believed, the report said.” (South China Morning Post, January 13, 1999) Odd that such intractable differences fester among people who are presumably similar. Red China is Canada’s primary source of immigrants, but we’ve been trained to recoil from thinking at all; and when we do, ascribe these little differences to our “many failings”.

In an appraisal of Hong Kong’s recent influx of mainland Chinese children, several unsavoury health issues have raised the — er — red flag. “Dr. Chow Chun-bong, a consultant paediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital and head of the team assessing immigrant children’s health, said those he has seen have poor vaccination coverage, high blood lead levels, higher rates of worm infestation, higher hepatitis B carrier rates, and some unusual conditions doctors are unlikely to see in local children. … Even if the number of children let in is as carefully controlled as the government would like, they will represent 10 per cent of children here. …

‘So we have a pool of children susceptible to Rubella.’ … Dr. Chow’s team has found that 10 to 15 per cent of immigrant children carry hepatitis B. Among teenagers in the group, the rate is 20 per cent. … Those who are carriers can infect anyone who has not been vaccinated. … [High blood lead levels] cause poor concentration, poor memory, behavioural problems, poor bone growth and, in severe cases, convulsions and even death. … Just a small rise in blood lead levels has been shown to drop a child’s intelligence, it also leads to behavioural problems like hyperactivity and poor memory. … Some studies have found 60 per cent of children in Beijing have high blood lead levels, while overall, 30 per cent of mainland children have high blood levels. … Dr. Chow believes the high lead levels in immigrant children stem from the environment they grew up in. They breathe more heavily polluted air in Guangzhou [province bordering Hong Kong], while some take traditional medicines known to have high lead contents. … While some children’s lead levels improved after living in Hong Kong, others stayed persistently high. This suggests, said Dr. Chow, something about their lifestyle here, such as use of traditional medicines, is keeping their blood lead levels high. … Overall, 17 per cent of the children in Dr. Chow’s study group had lead levels higher than the safe limit set by the Centres for Disease Control in the United States. … This also has serious implications for the mainland. If 17 per cent of children coming here [Hong Kong] have lead levels high enough to damage their brains, this means China is raising a generation of children under threat.” (South China Morning Post, March 9, 1999) This means that Canada ought to be testing, but one wonders whether Immigration Canada knows or cares about lead poisoning and attendant health, behavioural, education and productivity implications. They can’t even get a handle on tuberculosis.

Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I Smell the Blood of an Englishman; Be He Alive or be He Dead, I’ll Grind His Bones to Make My Bread

The average slob was likely too busy taking pot-shots to remember exactly when he realized Passenger Pigeons were thinning out. We know now that ecologies are very tenuous things, but there are ecologies — and ecologies. Presumably anything twitching and staggering around in circles is in big trouble. If life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness found separate expressions in the U.S. and Canada, the concept itself was grafted from British root stock that is facing a landmark extinction. In April of 1993, a young black man named Stephen Lawrence was stabbed at a bus stop in Eltham, Southeast London. Surprisingly little is known about the young man who has single-handedly (albeit posthumously) dismantled the great traditions of British Common Law. The Metropolitan Police immediately described this as “a racially motivated killing”, but unwisely speculated that Lawrence may have been a member of a youth gang. Five white youths appeared to answer charges in July 1993 and again in April 1994. In both instances, the Crown Prosecution Service deemed the evidence insufficient to support murder charges. In April of 1995, Lawrence’s parents took the unusual step of prosecuting the five privately, but their case collapsed after just seven days. Time dragged on while an increasingly desperate police force advertised for “new” witnesses (with many assurances of immunity from prosecution) to no avail. The failure to secure a conviction came to be interpreted as police “mismanagement” — or worse. In June of 1998 (buttressed by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Louis Farrakhan, and the Rev Al Sharpton) Stephen’s mother Doreen charged the Met with “institutionalized racism”. This, despite the fact that “when an outside police force [the Kent Constabulary] was called in by the Police Complaints Authority it found no evidence to support the allegations of racist conduct.” (The Economist, February 27, 1999) Soon the frustrated Lawrences were seizing on any and all racial incidents as evidence that “nothing has changed”. During the most recent of many inquiries, 20 Nation of Islam activists forced their way into chambers and next day engaged in street fighting (a mitigating factor in the Home Office’s decision to deny U.K. entry to Farrakhan). It was into this highly-charged atmosphere that Sir William MacPherson released his long-awaited report — only to find the first 1,000 copies “inadvertently” published the names of confidential police informants.

Tragicomic blunders aside, his report drubs British society as the cankered repository of base (if wholly unconscious) hatreds. His wide-ranging condemnations (70 of them) excoriate the police, judiciary, school, health care, armed forces, immigration, and other public bodies. Previous definitions of “thought crime” survive Kafkaesque perambulations before concluding: the police were indeed: “unwittingly and unconsciously prejudiced against ethnic minorities.” The report recommends “the making of racist language in society a criminal offence” and finally washes its hands of the accumulated grime of British Common Law when it takes the extraordinary step of recommending that the Brits: “reform the rule of double jeopardy”.

A few brave souls have wondered whether MacPherson’s grasp of inner city race problems may be somewhat naive — ensconced as he is in a 16th-century castle in Perthshire, Scotland? Never! Press on regardless. Stasi-like terror achieves new heights of paranoiac expression when “undercover police officers are posing as members of the public in London to test how the Metropolitan Police handles racial incidents in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. … They report to police stations pretending to be ordinary victims of crime or stage encounters in the street to attract the attention of patrolling officers, as part of a big exercise to root out racism in the force. … All 27,000 officers in the Met are to be issued with a card spelling out a new rule: ‘If anyone says it’s a racial incident – it is!’

Trials of the card in north-west London resulted in a 146 per cent increase in the number of reported racial incidents during the last three months of 1998. Over the same period there was a 98 per cent increase in reported racial incidents across the capital, and a 120 per cent increase in arrests for racial crimes.” (London Daily Telegraph, March 11, 1999) A new Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force has been set up at Scotland Yard headed by no less than the former chief of the Anti-Terrorist Branch. “Denis O’Connor, the Assistant Commissioner who is at the heart of Scotland Yard’s efforts, said … it calls for examination of why some groups are disproportionately represented in some types of crimes. Mr. O’Connor sees it as a question of ‘social disadvantage’ and not just a race issue.” (London Daily Telegraph, February 22, 1999) This hybrid racism contends that — regardless how diminished their own prospects — whites are inherently strangers to “social disadvantage”; and therefore sole catalyst and perpetrator of any incident in which race is a factor. Remember: ‘If anyone says it’s a racial incident, it is!’ . Intriguingly though: “When statistics show disproportionately more blacks than whites stopped and searched by the police the only explanation allowed is that the police are racist. … Perhaps a police officer is more likely to submit a ‘PACE 1’ form, by which the figures are collated, after searching a black person? As a serving police officer I have many colleagues who routinely search whites, with their consent, without submitting a form.

However, conscious of criticism from the race-relations industry, mentally they place black people into the same legal category as juveniles and fill out the form every time.” (Keith Harvey, The Economist, March 13, 1999) Don’t distract us with the facts; the “cause” is gathering a lovely momentum without their intrusion. Indeed, racists convicted of “harassment [whatever that currently means] could have their details passed on to local newspapers under plans being considered by Scotland Yard. Ethnic minority communities may be told that a racist is in the area, in the same way that schools are alerted to the presence of paedophiles.” (London Times, February 12, 1999) In the interim, “a group of Brixton rappers are producing a video and soundtrack for the Metropolitan Police as part of the force’s efforts to attract ethnic minorities into the service. … A story of a black man’s wrongful arrest will run throughout the video. … There are some 900 ethnic minority officers in the Met, which represents 3 per cent of the force.” (London Times, February 8, 1999) According to the London Times of March 11, 1999, the “white” population of the U.K. stands at 94.5 per cent. You may well think it strange to foster such virulent resentment for the sake of a couple of percentage points, but you would be wrong (this at least, comes as no surprise).

Home Secretary Jack Straw also came down hard. “Mr. Straw is examining legislation which would cost an officer up to 75 per cent of his pension after conviction of ‘top-level’ discipline breaches, such as very serious neglect of duty … the type of allegation made against officers in the Lawrence inquiry. … Now Mr. Straw has set a national target to increase the number of black and Asian officers … no chief constable will be able to plead that he cannot increase the number because of the absence of ethnic minorities in his area. … ‘That is not acceptable. … I want to see all forces set targets to recruit black and Asian police including those forces which happened to think they are wholly white areas,’ Mr. Straw said.” (London Times, February 10, 1999) Are you listening Canada? Do you hear it? … Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves.

Immigrant Health Screening Unreliable, Paediatrician

Warns Children and Youth New to Canada: A Health Care Guide is the first manual to deal exclusively with the unique health problems doctors and other health-care workers are likely to encounter in refugee and immigrant children. Undaunted, “Dr. Neil Heywood, director of immigration and health policy for Citizenship and Immigration Canada and [ironically] a contributor to the manual, said immigrants are examined by doctors, usually overseas, and must satisfy Canadian authorities they will not endanger public health or pose an excessive demand on the health-care system before they are granted a visa.” (Globe and Mail, April 15, 1999) Well, hooray. The Canadian Paediatric Society does not appear to share his optimism. The April edition of Paediatrics and Child Health warns of immigrants who “arrive sick or unvaccinated, slipping through the medical screening process abroad … [or who] do not see a doctor when they get here. … People who apply from abroad to immigrate to Canada go through an IME — short for Immigration Medical Examination, done world-wide by about 1,400 doctors vetted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. … Screening abroad is so unreliable that a Canadian doctor whose patient is a new immigrant or refugee ‘does well to assume that nothing has been undertaken and evaluate accordingly,’ according to Dr. Lee Ford-Jones [a paediatrician and infectious-disease specialist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and an associate editor of the journal]. … Fraud on health claims abroad is also part of the problem, Dr. Ford-Jones says: ‘For example, ‘it might not be your own chest X-ray you gave — you might have bought one from someone else.” (National Post, May 19, 1999)

None Of Her Business?

Ali Rasaei, 45, is a busy man. After leaving Iran, he settled in Australia, where he was charged with raping a teenager. Naturally, that was no impediment to entering Canada. Holly Desimone was working as a volunteer with a Calgary immigrant help group in 1991 when Rasaei attacked her, raping her vaginally and anally. He was also charged with raping two Edmonton women, but was freed by an Alberta court judge on $3,000 bail. He fled to Europe, Turkey, and Hong Kong. “In June 1995, he was sent back to Canada and on Sept. 9, 1996 he was convicted of the rapes in Edmonton. … Desimone, who has overturned a publication ban so she – and he – can be publicly identified, said Rasaei might be able to thwart deportation for years. … Citing the Privacy Act, Immigration Canada has refused to discuss the case with Desimone.” (Toronto Sun, March 6, 1999).

How About A Cold Shower?

The trafficking of Eastern European women for the sex trades is approaching epidemic proportions. So when Immigration Canada added “stripper” to that overseas recruiting tool known as the Occupations List, organized crime must have wept with joy. Belatedly coming to their senses, immigration officials now appear to be blocking such visas. “Joe Falconi, who owns J.R.’s Tavern in Chatham, Ont., says the agency he uses to supply him with 15 to 20 dancers per week, mostly from Eastern Europe, is seeing its roster diminish. ‘It has become very hard in the last five months,’ said Mr. Falconi.” (National Post, April 6, 1999) Thanks for sharing.

Speaking Of Assurances…

“A London, Ont., woman who was raped in 1993 by a criminal facing a deportation order has lost her bid to sue federal immigration officials for negligence. … [Michael] Philip, 42, a landed immigrant from Trinidad, was under the removal order because of earlier convictions for sexual assault and wife beating when he attacked the woman, a mother of two young children. … The woman and her children sought damages from the government for failing to deport Philip in a timely manner or take him into custody before removing him. … [Federal Court Judge Frederick] Gibson, however, ruled that the Immigration Department did not owe the woman special protection for which it could be held liable. … The case is the first to test what kind of legal responsibility Immigration officials have to Canadians harmed or killed by people who have dodged deportation orders.” (National Post, April 16, 1999) This decision must be a great consolation to the family of slain police officer, Todd Bayliss.

Arrested for “Driving While Black”?

That’s what Clifton Richards, (emigrated from Jamaica in 1989) says, and Justice Marc Rosenberg of the Ontario Court of Appeals has obligingly overturned his conviction. The original incident occurred on December 10, 1996. “Toronto police Constable Scott Aikman testified that he saw Mr. Richards speeding in a van and changing lanes without signalling. … Aikman jotted in his notebook that the driver was black and that two people in the van had dreadlocks. He followed the van to a gas station, and called for backup rather than approaching the driver. When the van started moving, the officer stopped it and found a different driver, whom he said was Asian. … Constable Aikman asked Mr. Richards for his driver’s licence. When Mr. Richards refused to show it, or to identify himself, the officer seized his arm and a violent struggle ensued. It ended with the officer squirting Mr. Richards with pepper spray and arresting him. … Richards has already served the 28-month jail term he received on convictions for escaping lawful custody, assaulting a police officer, attempted choking and uttering a death threat … which stemmed from the same incident. … Mr. Richards testified that he had been driving the van without a licence, but that he wasn’t speeding. … At the appeal, Mr. Richards was represented by the African Canadian Legal Clinic, which produced statistics showing police stop far more black drivers than white drivers.”

(Globe and Mail, May 5, 1999) Well, you know what they say: torture statistics enough, and they’ll say anything. Worse, there is a growing perception within law enforcement that the much-vaunted Decline in Crime is not a positive thing; dating as it does from the Rodney King debacle. In a reasonably cohesive society, good policing was largely a matter of instinct. Erratic or “suspicious looking” drivers frequently led police to other criminal activities. But in the world of vehicular stops (as everywhere else) any ethnic confrontation now carries an intrinsic threat to the officer’s career. New York has been under siege since the alleged toilet plunger rape of Haitian Abner Louima, and the more recent shooting death of Amadou Diallo. “Since the Diallo shooting, the elite Street Crime Unit involved in the incident has reported a 67 per cent drop in arrests, while murders are rising for the first time in several years. [Police Commissioner Howard] Safir said that the unit’s ranks were now reluctant to arrest minority suspects for fear of inciting more controversy.” (South China Morning Post, April 2, 1999) The day approaches when some groups will enjoy near-immunity in traffic and everywhere else.

Revolving Door of Deportation

“A man arrested during a police raid on a bawdy house in Nepean is awaitingdeportation to Jamaica for the third time, the Sun has learned. Patrick Marsh Christie, 29, was arrested during the Friday night raid at a Forester Cr. home. Christie, who has been charged with living off the avails of prostitution and obstructing police, is being held in custody until his next courtappearance Friday. Immigration spokesman Dave Olson … said, it’s not difficult to re-enter the country because of the volume of tourists coming into Canada.” (Ottawa Sun,February 2, 1999)