IRFAN-Hamas Front in Canada, Language Czar , Richard, Guite, Mafia in Canada, Canada Haven for Crooks & Terrorists
List of Articles:
* IRFAN: A Hamas front organization operating in Canada
* Customs: Get us backup
* French farce abroad -- Canada's official languages commissioner has gone overseas
* Bail granted to ad exec -- Allegedly broke bail conditions -- Sponsorship Scandal
* Guite won't face questions about evidence -- "Guite to avoid some questioning"
* Canada's a safe haven for crooks and terrorists -- "Le Mafie", about the Mafia in Canada
* Canada: A haven for Mafiosi of every sort -- Part 1 - In the first of a 22-part series -- how slack laws benefit organized crime from around the globe
IRFAN: A Hamas front organization operating in Canada
There is also an article in today's National Post on this. The following was sent to me but the links are here:
22 November 2004, Ottawa, ON - Today, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD), Stockwell Day (Official Opposition Critic, Foreign Affairs), and David Bedein (Bureau Chief for the Israel Resource News Agency) released a report connecting the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN Canada), a federally incorporated charitable organization (Charity Registration Number 885408849RR0001) to Hamas, a group that has been designated an illegal terrorist organization by the Canadian government.
In May 2000, a confidential memo from the Privy Council identified several Canadian charities acting as terrorist fronts. The memo stated: "Front groups operating in Canada include the Jerusalem Fund for Human Services (Hamas Front)".
"We have a situation in Canada where the Jerusalem Fund was identified by the government as a Hamas front. Then a new entity, IRFAN Canada, is granted legitimacy and tax-deductibility as a registered charity by the government, despite having the same address, same fax number, and same senior official, Mr. Rasem Abdel-Majid, as the Jerusalem Fund," said Alastair Gordon, Director of Communications for CCD. "A 30-minute Google search turned up all these facts."
"Our government claims to be cracking down on charities that fund terrorism," added Gordon, "yet even the most basic research of the government's own tax records would have called IRFAN into question."
CCD is calling on the government to begin an immediate investigation of IRFAN Canada to determine if (1) it has breached its obligations as a registered charity, and (2) if charges should be laid under Canada's anti-terrorism laws.
"Directly or indirectly funding Hamas is a criminal offense in Canada," said Naresh Raghubeer, executive director of CCD. "Yet it appears that our foreign aid and charitable tax dollars are being used for just such a purpose, all with the blessing or indifference of Paul Martin's government."
CANADA CUSTOMS officers want backup from armed cops at some of the country's busier airports and border crossings. "Our officers encounter all sorts of people every day," said John King, labour co-chair of the Customs Excise Union. "They face all sorts of danger on a daily basis." [. . . . ]
French farce abroad -- Canada's official languages commissioner has gone overseas
In today's episode of "Canada: Nuts 'R' Us," we find the federal bureau of official language loonies travelling the world at taxpayers' expense.
The office of Canada's official languages commissioner recently concluded a global investigation into the use of French at Canadian embassies -- even in countries that wouldn't know bonjour from bad hair.
Apparently not content with the fortune wasted on bilingualism boondoggles in this country every year, Official Languages Commissioner Dyane Adam recently turned her sights abroad. [. . . . ]
Similarly, the language czar reports an international crisis in Washington where our embassy website includes English-only text of some speeches to American audiences. Say it ain't so. [. . . . ]
This is one of those must read articles. Read about the state of bilingualism in our embassies abroad--and Ms. Adam and her team have been able to travel--to inspect--on the Canadian taxpayers' dollars to some great destinations like "Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Washington, Mexico City, Santiago, Washington, Chicago and New York" -- places maybe you would like to go if you didn't have to pay so many tax dollars so Liberal ministers such as Ms. Adam and team could travel the world--and create more need for French.
Diane Adam is underemployed and you're going to pay! The details would be hilarious if it weren't going to affect the vast majority of Canadians who are not French speakers -- be it affected in the pocketbook, through more government "initiatives", a larger department for Ms. Adam's pressing concerns, more control for a government already out of control -- or whatever.
Bail granted to ad exec -- Allegedly broke bail conditions -- Alain Richard, Quebec ad agency, sponsorship scandal
MONTREAL (CP) - Alain Richard, a former vice-president of a controversial Quebec ad agency implicated in the federal sponsorship scandal, was released on bail Monday after being arrested last week.
Richard was originally charged in September with two counts of uttering threats and three counts of criminal harassment.
Police arrested Richard on Friday and allege he contacted the victims and witnesses in the criminal harassment case. [. . . . ]
Guite won't face questions about evidence -- "Guite to avoid some questioning"
OTTAWA (CP) - A key witness at the federal sponsorship inquiry won't have to face questions about apparently contradictory stories he's told in the past.
Former bureaucrat Chuck Guite told a parliamentary committee last spring there was no political interference in the program. He's now telling a public inquiry that senior politicians and their aides called all the important shots.
Lawyers at the inquiry wanted to cross-examine him on the inconsistencies.
But Justice John Gomery ruled Monday they can't do so, because Guite's previous statements are protected by parliamentary privilege. [. . . . ]
Canada's a safe haven for crooks and terrorists -- "Le Mafie " -- Canada: A haven for Mafiosi of every sort -- an excerpt from Part 1: "how slack laws benefit organized crime from around the globe"
Le Mafie Nov. 21-28, 04, Antonio Nicaso, author of "Bloodlines: the rise and fall of the Mafia’s Royal Family" (Harper Collins) and nine other books on organized crime.
You may read Part 1 online; an excerpt is below this list of topics
Part 1 - In the first of a 22-part series we investigate how slack laws benefit organized crime from around the globe
Extortion and racketeering
Part 2 - The rise of organized crime in Canada and the hold of Mano Nera
La Cosa Nostra makes its way north
Part 3 - Drug trafficking and prostitution prosper in Montreal
The twisted code of silence
Part 4 - Murder, extortion and drug dealing exemplified organized crime in Toronto
The violent Paolo Violi connection
Part 5 - How a boy from Sinopoli in Reggio Calabria became the most feared man in Montreal
Canada’s Al Capone
Part 6 - Rocco Perri rose in Hamilton as the boss of all bosses
For the love of Bessie
Part 7 - The end of Rocco Perri’s reign as boss of Hamilton
The Drug Connection
Part 8 - How mobsters are poisoning the Canadian economy
The rise of the White Collar Mobster
Part 9 - Canada now a haven for money-laundering activities
[Parts 10-13 on the Russian mob]
Flirting with Power
Part 14 - The Russian mob is spreading its wings in Canada and the U.S. [. . . ]
The tattooed men
Part 17 - The startling power of Japan’s criminal underworld
The Dragon’s fire
Part 18 - The Chinese Triads are digging their claws into Canadian businesses [. . . ]
Understanding the Mafia
Part 20 - A recent survey exposes Canadians’ knowledge of organized crime
Sins of procrastination
Part 21 - Canada continues to drag its feet in the fight against Organized Crime
Canada’s sad truth
Part 22 - The Global Mafia finds comfort in country’s lack of anti-organized crime laws
Canada: A haven for Mafiosi of every sort -- Part 1 - In the first of a 22-part series -- how slack laws benefit organized crime from around the globe
"The Mafia is strong and well-rooted in Canada. But other criminal groups are operating with an organizational capacity and a turnover no lower than those of the Mafia."
Ben Soave is one of the point men at the RCMP. He’s been leading the special Organized Crime Task Force in the Greater Toronto Area, and he and his men are credited, among other things, with the capture of Alfonso Caruana, who is alleged to be one of the most powerful bosses of international drug trafficking.
[. . . . ] In 1990, the government was forced to review legislation on this subject, after two U.S. Grand Juries investigated certain transactions involving two branch offices, one of the Bank of Nova Scotia and the other of the Royal Bank of Canada, operating in the Caribbean.
"There were suspicions that the money deposited was the fruit of drug dealing," confirms the former vice Director of the FBI, Oliver "Buch" Revell.
"Today, in the case of suspicious transactions, bank officials may inform the police, but the law does not compel them to do so," explains Soave. "If a boss enters Canada with a suitcase full of cash, based on the laws currently in force we can do little if anything at all," he admits.
[. . . . ] Canada seems to be a country suitable for Mafia investments. The stock market in Vancouver is seemingly very receptive and investments by the Triads could be the order of the day. "Better than Vancouver, we should call it Van-Kong," suggests half-jokingly a British Columbia RCMP sergeant who prefers to remain anonymous. The largest part of heroin destined to Canada and the U.S. enters through British Columbia. Montreal, which has become the marshalling yard for cocaine arriving from Bolivia and Europe, is no less important.
[. . . . ] According to Fantino, in dealing with criminals the police should avail itself of the same tools used by Revenue Canada. "That’s the only way to stop them".
