I won’t pretend to understand how Canada’s immigration system works, but I’m bringing you this column simply to bring to your attention that Canada has been slow to take action on fraud involving Somalis among others. As a matter of fact, we’ve heard that Somali Omar Jamal, convicted of immigration fraud in Tennessee a few years back, and now the go-to guy for the mainstream media in Minneapolis (and everywhere!) came in through Canada. Note we have 6 pages of posts that include references to Jamal, here.
The Canadian government has decided to go on the offensive and tell its side of the story in connection with allegations that its officials mishandled the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud, the Canadian of Somali origin who was detained in Kenya on suspicion that someone else was using her passport to travel to Canada. Such a move by Ottawa is relatively rare. In the case of Maher Arar, who was awarded more than $10-million by the Canadian government on the grounds that it had contributed to his being imprisoned and mistreated by the Syrians, Canadian investigations focused on whether actions by our security and intelligence agencies had been appropriate and not whether there was any substance to allegations Arar had connections with possible terrorist organizations or their supporters.
What Ottawa should also do is let the public know just how massive a problem some of our missions overseas face on a daily basis when it comes to receiving fraudulent applications to come to Canada. The Americans have been more up-front in this regard. Last year they suspended their Priority Three (P-3) refugee resettlement program, which was administered largely from the U. S. mission in Nairobi and involved mainly Somali and Ethiopian applicants. After carrying out DNA checks on sponsors in the United States and relatives being sponsored for immigration from Africa, it was discovered that more than 80% of the latter were not, in fact, related to the sponsors at all and were trying to enter the U. S. under false pretenses.
That reminds me. I wonder if we have reinstated the fraud-ridden family reunification program that the State Department suspended last year, here. Hey, commenter ‘Knowing,’ do you know?