Why am I Not Surprised: Another Refugee Scam Using HRDC $ and the Naive Members of our Federal Immigration and Refugee Boards
When are Canadians going to use savvy people to screen incoming students and refugees instead of government appointees? I believe many are compromised because they owe their loyalty to the governments that appoint them. Also, there are too many stakeholders working within the system -- stakeholders who were themselves refugees and immigrants or worked in some way to facilitate their entry to Canada. I want more who were born here and remember what our country was like before the borders became sieves.
Toronto — The federal government provided funds to students of the Ottawa Business College, . . . until just days before its registration was suspended.
The Ontario Ministry of Education [adminstering the Canada Student Loans Program for the federal HRDC] confirmed yesterday that students registered with the college received loans from the federal government totalling $8,910 during the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2001. The ministry revoked the college's registration the next month.
Citing questions of privacy, a ministry spokesman would not comment on whether any of 21 men arrested by a federal antiterrorism task force in recent weeks had received loans under the program.
The college provided fraudulent letters to foreigners so they could enter and stay in Canada on student visas even though they did not attend classes, immigration hearings have been told.
Have you noticed how often privacy concerns are used to keep from having to give out information? It is replacing patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel.
[. . . .]
The college is a link among many of the individuals swept up in the immigration and terrorism investigation. At least nine of the men told Immigration Department officials they were students at the college. Four said they were enrolled even after there were no classes to attend.
[. . . .]
Hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board were told that Luther Samuel, onetime owner of the school, has admitted that he provided several fraudulent letters attesting that students were attending classes and had paid tuition fees.
Here are a few choice quotations from the article:
--charged fees ranging from $400 to $500 for false letters indicating an individual had paid tuition
--400 fraudulent entries into Canada through the school.
--no tuition fees . . . have ever been paid to the college
--"The persons who purchased the letters never had the intention of attending class, and in fact, even if they had, there were no classes to attend."
--a massive immigration scam
--used the college to extend their stay in Canada --bogus diplomas and fictitious vocational courses
[. . . . ]
In an apparent reference to Mr. Samuel, Mr. Mohammed testified that a man named Mr. Luther came to his house and handed him an envelope after he paid $1,000 to the college.
When Mr. Mohammed asked what had happened to his money, he testified that "Mr. Luther" told him he couldn't get into the course to which he had applied. He said the man then handed him an envelope, containing a diploma.
My Commentary:
Couldn't the Immigration and Refugee Boards be staffed by native-born Canadians who have some knowledge of the scams that are normal business in some of the countries from which we get so many immigrants and refugees? Working as a volunteer abroad or acquiring one good training stint of a few months travelling around the world and having to protect oneself from the usual Third World's scams would give each a fair idea of what to look for. Or would writing this be considered racist? Better to appoint recent immigrants and Liberals--aided and abetted by a surfeit of immigration lawyers--who know when to close their eyes, believe whatever they're told, and figuratively stick their heads in the sand.
