On October 1 we reported that an American refugee worker had been arrested in Canada for smuggling undocumented Haitians across the border of the US into Canada.    Now, church leaders in Canada are crying foul maintaining that Canada’s new law on refugees and immigrants does not apply to faith-based smugglers acting with humanitarian intent.   So it seems there is good trafficking in humans and bad trafficking and its all about motive.  Whahhh?

Section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act passed in June 2002 states that “No person shall knowingly organize, induce, aid or abet the coming into Canada of one or more persons who are not in possession of a visa, passport or other document required by this Act.”

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“We are deeply concerned that this provision is now being applied to a faith-based refugee worker,” said Wiebe [Mennonite Central Committee Canada]. “While we deplore the smuggling of human beings in all forms, this is not smuggling,” he said, explaining numerous organizations based in the US and Canada have been bringing refugees to the border in cooperation with the border services agency.

This is what is wrong with the whole immigration issue.  There are those who believe that if one’s motives are pure and faith-based, the law should not apply to them.