Number 92 May, 1997

"Refugee" Criteria A Cruel Joke on Canadians

"By granting refugee status to a 12-year-old American-born boy who claims persecution at the hands of the social-welfare and immigration systems of both the United States and Britain, Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board has strengthened its tradition of seeming more preoccupied with earning the approval of foreign advocacy groups than with making sound decisions at home.

This novel ruling will please child-rights advocates from the United Nations. It will also break new ground for victims-rights advocates because it creates for sex-abuse victims such as this unfortunate boy, a distinct class under Canadian immigration law. In recent years, Canada's refugee regulations have moved beyond sheltering those persecuted because of their political, national or religious affiliations to a far broader brief. Indeed, the brief is now virtually universal. Thanks to the ruling on the American child and the board's 1993 guidelines on 'gender related persecution' (which theoretically covers the extreme of female circumcision as well as mild abuses of Western-style women's rights), Canada is now on the experimental edge of global compassion. The experimental frontier is where the Immigration Department wants the country to be.

The annual reports of the Immigration and Refugee Board contain glowing references to the compliments that foreign newspapers and non-governmental organizations have paid Canada's most avant-garde policy changes. The question is whether the frontier is where most Canadians ... want Canada to be.... In this case, the board ruled that the child, who is a U.S. and British citizen, has a well-founded fear of persecution in Britain because the state failed to protect him from ongoing sexual abuse by his father. The board heard that the child was also sexually abused by his paternal grandparents, and that various protection agencies rejected his mother's complaints. The child then had his rights in the U.S. denied when his stepfather was refused U.S. citizenship because of a drug conviction.

Thus, the child who as an incest victim is a member of a particular social group with a well-founded fear of persecution in his two home countries, has gained entry into Canada for himself, his mother and his stepfather. If the boy's natural father were to come to Canada and claim refugee status for having a well-founded fear of being persecuted in Britain, as a father accused of abuse who is denied the chance to see his son, presumably the board would grant him a hearing also. ... As for this specific case, Canada should not present itself as a safe haven from democracies ruled by law, such as the U.S. and Britain." (Globe and Mail, April 19, 1997)

CRIME WATCH

"Refugee" Heroin Queen Skips Trial and Flees to Red China

It's another one of those stories that point out the utter impotence of Canada's "refugee" system and the abject failure of the justice system to protect Canadians where dangerous foreign criminals are concerned. "A jury trying 13 people accused of conspiring to import and distribute heroin was suddenly dismissed [April 23] after the judge was told the primary target of the prosecution had absconded. The missing defendant, Wai Lung Au, was among about 50 people arrested in September of 1994. She apparently never sought employment after entering Canada as a refugee claimant in 1989, but had been free on $75,000 bail." (Globe and Mail, April 24, 1997)

Questions: 1. Why was this wife of a known Chinese drug lord permitted into the country? 2. Why was such a dangerous person granted bail? Ask candidates in the upcoming election. "The woman ... may have used false travel documents to make her way back to a husband in China. ... Opting to continue Ms. Au's trial in her absence on a judge-only basis, Judge [Arthur] Whealy heard the first of three witnesses. ... The witness was Chun Wai Ng, who admitted last December that he had headed a syndicate importing pure heroin from Thailand through China and who received the equivalent of an 18-year penitentiary sentence.

Mr. Ng, 33, speaking through a translator, admitted having imported a 13-kilogram shipment of pure heroin, worth about $40-million on the street, that was seized in December of 1994 at a railway transfer station in Mississauga. ... The hearing was told that the gang ... the Big Circle Boys [Dai Huen Jai] was behind an influx of high-quality heroin, known on the street as No. 4 China White, that resulted in a large rise in overdose deaths in British Columbia and Ontario. ... Described as a leader of a group of Big Circle Boys operating in the Toronto area, Mr. Ng was arrested on September 7, 1994, on an immigration warrant.

The hearing was told Mr. Ng used his brother in China to negotiate potential suppliers and that on at least one occasion the brother met and negotiated with Ms. Au, ... described ... as one of three people 'each of whom were demonstrably able to arrange for the importation and distribution of heroin.'" On April 25, Au was convicted in absentia. "A drug lord's wife likely slipped back to her native China to avoid conviction at her heroin trial and will probably be reunited with the seven-year-old son she left behind, police say. Wai Ling Au, 34, described by a judge as 'at the very top of a hierarchy of distribution' of deadly China White heroin, was sentenced to life ... on drug trafficking charges." (Toronto Sun, April 26, 1997)

Au "entered Canada eight years ago as an alleged supporter of China's democracy movement. ... The woman was never gainfully employed, but on achieving landed-immigrant status made several trips back to the country [Red China] from which she had sought refuge. [When she fled], she had left her apartment is a black BMW she had had the use of, although it was registered in the name of her boyfriend's sister. ... The boyfriend [was] described by police as having a record of narcotics trafficking. ... In passing sentence, Judge Whealy remarked that the victims of the woman's crime were 'members of the community that took her in as a refugee.' Her 'callous and deliberate criminal activity was solely for the purpose of personal gain.'" (Globe and Mail, April 25, 1997) ... Au's co-accused, Ye Qing Wu, 33, was gunned down at the Jolly Bee Donuts and Deli ... on December 29, 1996. Wu -- who was awaiting trial on a conspiracy charge -- arrived from China in 1990 without valid documents and made a refugee claim but was ordered out of the country the next year. The order was never carried out." (Toronto Sun, April 26, 1997) Why not?

Will any federal supervisor lose his job for such gross negligence? The Wu case emphasizes the importance of keeping all illegals under lock and key until their claims can be resolved and then of deporting them summarily if their claims are rejected.

Welfare Officials Shelter Foreign Criminals

Many a native-born Canadian has been humiliated by harsh, supercilious treatment from welfare officers. It may be the bum's shuffle for them, but it's a big welcome if you're a wanted foreign criminal. "Metro police and parole officers say welfare officials are refusing to stop payments or provide them with information to help catch criminals and fugitives sought on Canada-wide warrants. A North York rapist who attacked a 79-year-old woman is among the criminals officers are trying to get off the welfare rolls. Jadduroy James Hera, 60, was jailed for five and a half years in October, 1993 for battering and raping a 79-year-old North York woman in her home during a 12-hour spree of violence.

Hera was ruled a danger to the public and ordered deported to Guyana for the July, 1992 attack on his elderly employer. The woman suffered a broken shoulder, serious bruising to her face, back and chest and severe vaginal bruising and tearing. The woman who lived alone, had hired Hera, a father of seven, to do her grocery shopping and other errands. Immigration spokesman John Helsdon said Hera was ordered deported in November, 1994. Heldson said Hera, released on $6,000 cash and performance bonds in July, 1996, is still in Canada. Investigators said one of Hera's release conditions was that he not collect welfare or other benefits. But, despite efforts by police and parole officers, welfare officials have refused to stop his benefits. Police and parole officers said there are dozens of such fugitives whom welfare officials continue to provide with benefits. As well, the officials refuse o give police addresses or other information needed to make arrests." (Toronto Sun, January 7, 1997)

Jamaican Drug Pusher Sneaks Back to Canada

"A man convicted of shooting at cops who got out of jail early so he could be deported will have to serve the rest of his original setence after admitting he snuck back into Canada. Drug dealer Colin Anthony Osbourne, who was offered parole after eight months in jail, so he could be deported to Jamaica pleaded guilty to returning unlawfully to Canada a little more than a year after he had been deported in August, 1995. ... In his earlier conviction [which earned him 10 years], Osbourne fired three shots from his .357 Magnum at undercover officers Rod Redquest and Nelson Andrew in March, 1991 during an undercover drug bust. Osbourne pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine, possession for trafficking, weapon and drug possession charges." (Toronto Sun, January 10, 1997)