DND provides a rogue’s gallery of Canada’s growing collection of smuggling ships: http://www.marpac.dnd.ca/migrants/index.html
.
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
VICTORIA — The crew of a human smuggling ship caught off the British Columbia coast briefly tried to elude a navy destroyer before surrendering … the ship stopped and a white T-shirt was hoisted.
— Nice to know that one side of the equation sees these serial incursions as a ‘war’ —
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
Pictures from the vessel transfer scene showed scores of migrants wearing face masks.
— Yummy —–
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
Two so-called ghost ships sank after arriving undetected and unloading their passengers, Varnai said. … It is not known how many people were on board two other ships that slipped undetected into B.C. waters this summer.
— When did it officially click over to TWO previously undetected smuggler’s vessels? Once again: none of your business. The truth is that no one knows how many other ships there have been. —
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
Canada isn’t the only destination sought by Chinese migrants. Varnai said officials in Australia have intercepted 21 boats in the last five months.
— In a Maclean’s August 23 interview, Elinor Caplan pleaded: “We mustn’t do anything that would cause a tragic result – even if our laws are not being respected.” Well thanks a lot for taking a stand on multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and organized crime. Does Revenue Canada share the indifference to our laws? No, this concern is exclusively reserved for the illegal aliens that just.. keep.. coming. Nevertheless, logic dictates that when criminals engage in ferrying people across the Pacific in condemned rustbuckets, Canada’s paralysis simply makes a ‘tragic result’ inevitable. Remember – Australia toughened detention and removals only AFTER a 15 Tamils drowned. —
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
Most of the migrants paid human smugglers, known as snakeheads in China, thousands of dollars to take them to Canada. RCMP Const. Tracey Rook said police have had difficulty obtaining information about the smugglers from the migrants. “There’s been some reluctance from the migrants. And that’s been something that’s been consistent with all of the boats.”
— Have rapacious immigration lawyers forgotten to explain the public relations coup a public denunciation would bring? Unlikely. Nevertheless, their clients refuse to confide in solicitous foreign officials. Are there overlooked enforcers still among them? Probably. But as we warned on August 19: “We cannot protect families in China from violent retribution from organized criminal gangs. This is an abysmally dirty business, and one that MOST countries are TRYING to distance themselves from.”
All of which is further evidence, as though any were needed, or wanted, that there are no simple-minded solutions. Canadians are basically decent people, and no one (apart from the immigration minister) has seriously suggested sinking the boats. Equally, no one (apart from the immigration minister) has seriously suggested that deteriorating weather conditions will magically “make it all just please, please go away”. What is DESPERATELY needed is full and open national dialogue. If Canada is to be changed fundamentally by this invasion, let the people of Canada make that decision – not organized crime. —
(cNews, Friday, September 10, 1999)
Officials have issued Canadawide warrants for 32 people who were released into the community and disappeared, immigration spokesman Rob Johnston. [Of the 76 released from the Boat #1, nearly half have disappeared: in addition to the 32, five earlier warrants were issued]. “We’re taking a much stronger approach to detention because we do not believe the individuals will appear for removal from Canada.”
REMOVAL??
No, what they’re passing up is their purported “right” (guaranteed at any cost to the Canadian taxpayer) to a (so we’re told) much-coveted refugee hearing. But, as it turns out, “refugee hearing” is just the punchline to this over-long and convuluted joke.
“If they show, the process is totally ridiculous. There are two judges in refugee hearings and no independent research, public scrutiny or cross-examination is ever involved. Believe it or not, if there is a split decision, the refugee is always allowed to stay. If both judges decide the person is unacceptable, a written opinion must be done. If one or both judges decide to let someone stay, no written decision is required. This is key because most judges are patronage appointees — [… and couldn’t write an opinion to save their caboose?]
(National Post, August 7, 1999)
Oh, but don’t go away – it gets worse. Much worse.
“Most illegal refugee claimants from China CANNOT BE DEPORTED home because their native country won’t accept them, said Raymond Chan, Canada’s minister for Asia-Pacific affairs. … Chan said few of the hundreds of would-be refugees that keep arriving by smugglers’ ships in B.C. will likely be sent back unless China becomes more cooperative.
(Toronto Sun, September 11, 1999)
“China insists deportees must be able to prove who they are, which is difficult when they arrive on our shores with no or bogus documents. And even when China knows who the deportee is, they still may refuse to issue travel papers.”
(Vancouver Province, September 10, 1999)
Ask your MP
Are they “ours” forever, once they reach Canadian waters? This is grotesque. It’s all very well for the immigration minister to remind us about the law – it used to mean something here – but what weight does our “process” carry in China? Is a deportation order (after a long and costly pantomime) useless at issuance? Once again, where’s the leadership? Is there anybody out there? Hellooo?
“Prime Minister Jean Chretien — who arrived in Auckland today after a 24-hour flight — has no plans to officially discuss the wave of illegal migrants washing up on Canadian shores when he meets his Chinese counterpart at the APEC summit. A spokesman for the prime minister said Chretien will likely have no time in his schedule to raise the issue with Chinese Prime Minister Jiang Zemin.”
(Toronto Sun, September 11, 1999)
Don’t mess up the old golf game on our account. This arch meddler (Bosnia, Kosovo, Congo, etc.) is now thinking of sending Canadian troops to far-off East Timor. They’re needed HERE to patrol Vancouver Island and other isolated areas used by the snakeheads to sneak their human cargo into Canada. The first priority of any armed forces is to protect its country’s borders. All else is secondary. Let regional forces sort out the mayhem in East Timor.
“The human cargoes have been arriving at a rate of one every 12 days. Based on interviews with the Chinese passengers, many of them reluctant to talk, officials have privately speculated that as many as 11 boats are headed eastbound across the Pacific Ocean.”
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Saturday, September 11, 1999)
“MS. CAPLAN SAID SHE WILL -NOT- CONSIDER IS USING THE CONSTITUTION’S NOTWITHSTANDING CLAUSE TO OVERRIDE A SUPREME COURT DECISION THAT GUARANTEES REFUGEE CLAIMANTS THE RIGHT TO HAVE THEIR CLAIMS HEARD.”
(The Ottawa Citizen, September 10, 1999)
*** C-NEWS POLL ***
http://www.canoe.ca/TopStories/ship_sep10.html
Should Immigration Canada grant refugee status to illegal immigrants landing by boat in B.C.?
Yes 7% No 93%
Whatever. Democracy – schmemocracy. Elinor Caplan is determined to turn us into “The Cat Lady Country” (I just can’t say no to a stray)
“a hundred more refugees does not mean the sky is falling.”
Pat (quit kicking or we’ll have you investigated) Martin, NDP immigration critic
(National Post, Friday August 13, 1999)
“To Toronto Conservative Senator William Kelly, the flood of migrants into Canada is out of control. Kelly chaired the Senate committee that reported on illegal immigration in January. The committee’s research revealed that government officials had no idea where many of the people who have declared refugee status end up. ‘The Immigration Act has got to be revised because the problem is much larger than anyone wants to admit,’ says Kelly. ‘THE DIFFICULTY IS EVERY TIME SOMEONE WANTS TO RAISE THE ISSUE, THEY ARE ACCUSED OF BEING RACIST.‘”
(Maclean’s, August 23, 1999)
“Don’t you think the folks in Shanghai or Bombay would be justified in questioning their immigration policies if their cities had experienced the same demographic changes that have occurred in Toronto and Vancouver these past 20 years? The citizens of major Chinese and Indian cities raise hell if too many newcomers arrive from places an hour’s train ride away so it shouldn’t surprise anyone if our arms aren’t always open.”
(letter, Vancouver Sun, September 9, 1999)
“Taking care of the migrants is becoming more expensive. Officials say they’re spending about $200,000 per week on each boatload That figure does not include the cost of police and military personnel involved in capturing them at sea.”
(CBC Newsworld Sat Sep 11 21:37:32 1999)
But the costs are elsewhere reckoned even higher:
 |
“B.C. politicians are becoming increasingly concerned about the cost to taxpayers to keep the migrants here. The province estimates the cost at $2 million a month.”
(Toronto Star, Saturday, September 11, 1999)
GOOD NEWS – WE’RE NOT A PACK OF IDIOTS!
Immigration official “George Varnai said the fact the ships have been seized – and more than 600 people detained – is proof Canada is doing its part to crack down on a global problem. ‘It shows that they’re not making fools of us at all,’ said Varnai.”
(Toronto Star, Saturday, September 11, 1999)
The snakeheads must be quaking into their velvet slippers after this “crackdown”, where Canadian taxpayers relieve THEM of the cost of feeding the illegals for a few weeks before turning them loose to disappear and presumably get to work in a sweatshop or body rub joint to pay off their debt. No, the only fools, are the untelegenic Varnai, Elinor “Every Illegal Is A Keeper” Caplan and the poor Canadian taxpayers.
… “Fisherman Lin Tian-fa, 37: ‘I would be willing to do any job in Canada. Most of us are ILLITERATE so we can only do coolie work like washing dishes. But I would get higher pay for it in Canada.’ …
… ‘I would like to go to Canada,’ said a secretary at a large Hong Kong firm. ‘Maybe I should go to Fuzhou, get on a boat and sneak in. I heard the refugees get treated well in Canada. They are given a living allowance and rent money.’ …
(Ottawa Citizen, Saturday, September 11, 1999)
“On Friday, a Vancouver TV station quoted what it called a reliable source as saying 11 more suspect migrant ships are headed for the B.C. coast and are expected to arrive in rapid succession. Meanwhile, the National Post reported today that U.S. immigration officials believe thousands of Chinese migrants have slipped into the U.S. through Canada over the past few years. Mike McLaughlin, assistant district director of investigations for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said agents recently broke up an operation that had smuggled 3,500 Chinese into the U.S. through [the Akwasasne / St. Regis] an Ontario Indian reserve that straddles the border. All of the migrants had passed through Vancouver. The smugglers collected $170 million in fees from the migrants during a two-year period.”
(Edmonton Journal, Saturday 11 September 1999)
Soon the gang that couldn’t think straight will have the snakeheads and triad bosses motivated by the highest humanitarian impulses while hard-hearted Canadian tax payers are characterized as brutally greedy criminals.
Meanwhile, the guilt campaign rumbles along — alleging among other things: “table-thumping and finger pointing by RCMP officers.” (Ottawa Citizen, September 10, 1999) Try not to laugh. How often have we been informed that these heroic sea-farers preferred to brave the terrors of the deep over a hideously brutal regime? It MUST have been a rough crossing if “table-thumping and finger pointing” suddenly reduces them to a state of paralytic fearfulness.
What can be done about the seemingly never-ending influx of Chinese boat people posing as refugees? Canadians might well look to Australia for the right answer.
In a news release Sept. 2, Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock disclosed that, “The Australian government today removed 85 Chinese boat people.” From a Canadian standpoint, this was a remarkable announcement, inasmuch as all of these illegal immigrants had landed in Australia in late May and early June.
“Those involved were all from Fujian province and were expected to pay organizers up to $36,000 for their trip to Australia,” explained Ruddock. He added: “These people had no lawful right to remain in Australia. I hope in sending the group home it will show others from the province that such journeys are pointless.”
Australia took in 11,360 legitimate refugees last year, including more than 1,500 from Africa. While Ruddock is proud of this humanitarian record, he is determined to curb people smuggling, especially in the aftermath of the tragic deaths by drowning earlier this summer of 15 boat people from Sri Lanka who were trying to enter Australia illegally.
People smugglers must realize, says Ruddock, “that Australia is not a soft touch when it comes to unlawful arrivals.” To drive this message home, he issued a press release in China, advising that, “all recent unlawful arrivals along the east coast of Australia have now been returned to China.”
Meanwhile, what is Canada’s Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan doing to curb the smuggling of bogus refugees into Canada? So far this summer, close to 450 boat people on three rickety ships from Fujian province have been caught landing in British Columbia. Others are evidently on the way, crossing the Pacific Ocean for Canada at great peril to their lives.
In a public statement, Caplan has admonished that, “human smuggling is a crime and it cannot and will not be tolerated in Canada.” What makes her think human smugglers are any more likely than heroin smugglers to heed such warnings? To those who call for the prompt deportation of bogus refugees, Caplan replies that anyone who comes to Canada, whether “by boat, plane, train, car or on foot,” has a legal right to make a refugee claim. But that’s also true of Australia. Refugee applicants within Australia are entitled to a fair hearing before an independent refugee review tribunal. Under terms of this system, people making transparently bogus claims can be deported within three months of arrival.
In contrast, the cumbersome system for processing refugee applications within Canada typically takes more than 21/2 years to come up with a final decision. Why is that? Judicial activists on the Supreme Court of Canada are to blame. In the 1985 Singh decision, they struck down the federal Immigration Act on grounds that stricter procedures were needed to uphold the legal rights of refugee applicants under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Thanks to the Supreme Court, refugee applicants with manifestly dubious claims are now entitled to a far more extensive set of formal hearings. In addition, they qualify for free legal aid, social assistance, education and health-care benefits at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.
According to the auditor general, the cost to the federal treasury of processing refugee claims is, “at least $100 million a year.” For provincial treasuries, welfare benefits for refugee claimants alone cost more than $200 million a year.
Smugglers in Fujian province are spreading the word: Bogus refugee claimants can expect to live freely and in comparative luxury for at least two years in Canada, before skipping across the border into the United States. This situation is ludicrous.
Australia has a fair, humane and sensible refugee policy. So should Canada. Before some boatload of bogus refugees drowns off the coasts of British Columbia, Parliament should amend the Immigration Act to allow for the indefinite detention of all illegal immigrants and the expeditious processing of refugee claims. In addition, Parliament should declare this law shall apply, notwithstanding any perceived conflict with the charter. Judicial autocrats on the Supreme Court must be made to understand they have no right to substitute their personal political opinions for the policy judgments of Parliament.
(Rory Leishman, London Free Press, September 10, 1999)
Toronto City Councilor; Gordon Chong
“The human snakes sneaking into Canada becoming refugees is ridiculous and unreasonable.” “The organized smugglers are taking advantage of sympathy for women and children.” “If successful, before the weather gets cold, there will be more women and children challenging Canada’s refugee policy.” “These people insult Canada’s humanitarian spirit and are ruining the immigration and refugee system’s principles of fairness.”
“Illegal immigrants constitute a large proportion of criminals involved in large-scale operations (sought) by the police.” “Security people are concerned Canada will become a criminal heaven if we don’t quickly plug this loophole.” “The problem is that leniency only encourages more criminal activity, enriching smugglers who charge tens of thousands of dollars for each illgal migrant ferried.” “If anyone could do an objective public opinion survey, opposition to the human snakes would surely be higher than support for them, with the exception of immigration lawyers, consultants and the relatives and friends of the human snakes.” …
… ALL THESE QUOTATIONS WERE CULLED FROM OPION PIECES IN CHINESE LANGUAGE DAILIES WRITTEN OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS.
… It’s quite probable some of these boats waited offshore to be discovered so their occupants could legally apply for refugee status with all the accompanying benefits. If they were to disembark in secrecy, at night, they would have no status and would have had to go underground to fend for themselves. But why hide when in Canada you will be welcomed with open arms – and wallets!
… With only rare exceptions, we should select refugees from abroad, not allow them to self-select us if they can get a foot on Canadian soil.
… Ottawa must act now or risk being swamped by a tidal wave of phony refugees. This time it’s China. A few years ago it was the Czech Republic. Who’s next?
(Toronto City Councillor, Gordon Chong, Toronto Sun, Sept 4, 1999)
ASK YOUR MP:
— Fueled by and enriching a criminal enterprise, if deportation orders are ever issued – what will China do? Are they ‘ours’ the moment they hit the beach?
— Are Candians EVER going to be permitted the luxury of determining what kind of country and what kind of immigration policy -WE- can live with?
— What is Immigration / Health Canada doing to assure Canadians that their health and safety will not be compromised?
— Why does the new Immigration Minister REFUSE to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause?
— A public inquiry into allegations of bribery and corruption is the only way to clear up nasty allegations of abuses and payoffs in Canadian missions in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Before squandering more tax dollars yet another in-house, partisan committee; let’s call in an independent outside body like Transparency International.
* * *
— Your MP’s constituency office is listed in the BLUE pages of the phone book – CALL — To find out who your MP is: http://canada.gc.ca/directories/mp_direct_e.html
You can write your MP postage free: c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 — there’s plenty of time left before Parliament resumes (a real letter carries more weight than an e-mail)
— BC residents may wish to ask their MLA what this is costing them?
— e-mail Elinor Caplan Caplan.E@parl.gc.ca or write – c/o House of Commons, etc.