-- CHINESE ILLEGALS --
CFIRC - BREAKING NEWS - SEPT 5, 1999
_________________________
Migrants' clean clothes raise stink
VICTORIA, BC. -- It's true that the mills of God grind slow, but the mills
in the bureaucratic mind-maze grind even slower. And less surely.
Two weeks ago I suggested that the heart of the Chinese people-smuggling
ring was HERE, IN CANADA, NOT IN CHINA. Whether immigration official George
Varnai read our published thoughts and pondered the possibility, or whether
a light dawned without prompting into the bureaucratic mind-maze isn't
known. But as the last batch of illegals came ashore on northern Vancouver
Island on the last day of August, Mr. Varnai was heard to say he now
believed "the smugglers have help ashore ... that they normally plan to
unload (their human cargo) without being detected."
Maybe now, he, with an assist by the RCMP (if it can find the manpower to
help), can provide us with an answer to what I call the clothing question. I
didn't notice it until the second boat load when the women, after two months
at sea in a ships-hold stinking with human feces and rotting food, were
filmed on the deck of their rustbucket fishboat with bright silk dressing
gowns or eiderdowns wrapped around their shoulders. And they all eventually
came ashore in clean blouses and pressed designer jeans.
On September 1, the Victoria Times Colonist carried a front page photograph
of half-a-dozen young men just moved from another filthy fishboat tramp to
the immaculate decks of a Canadian navy vessel. They have been handed clean
blankets to ward off west coast ocean chill, and clearly showing to go with
their broad smiles, were perfect-fit clean shirts and snug-belted jeans.
Maybe our navy goes to the rescue of illegals with a full-stocked men's and
women's fashion shop, which would answer my questions while raising others.
One thing is for sure, as any traveler who has ever lived for more than a
week out of a suitcase will confirm, nobody steps ashore bandbox fresh after
72 days (the latest voyage estimate) in the hold of a filthy, unseaworthy,
rusty, former fishing trawler.
SOME MEMBERS OF VICTORIA'S SUBSTANTIAL CHINESE COMMUNITY ARE CONVINCED THE
SO-CALLED REFUGEES ARE MAKING THE CROSSING ON MORE SEAWORTHY AND COMFORTABLE
VESSELS AND BEING TRANSFERRED TO THE NEAR DERELICTS ONLY FOR THE LAST
KILOMETRES OF THEIR JOURNEY. It is a theory dismissed by immigration, coast
guard and police officials, while all three bodies admit they lack the
resources to patrol the vast Pacific with any guarantee that they can locate
illegals before they enter Canadian waters.
The most recent vessel to be escorted to Vancouver Island was carrying close
to 200 men, women and children. It was not picked up by routine air patrol
until well inside Canadian waters and coastal patrol and coast guards admit
they'll probably never be able to do any better until given more aircraft
and men.
They can be believed. Their resources in men and equipment are thin, but
that should not be an excuse for failing to find answers to inevitable
questions: Where were the illegals scheduled to make landfall? Why are they
always apprehended on unseaworthy vessels, sans lifeboats or sanitation,
ships one faltering knot from the wrecker's yard and no loss to anybody if
confiscated or sunk? And always the great unanswered question, whomwere they
supposed to be met by as they stepped ashore in their nice clean clothes?
As immigration now appears to be belatedly admitting there was, somewhere on
British Columbia's rugged West Coast, a Canadian based welcoming committee
ready to whisk the latest arrivals to the easy-to-hide-in warrens of first
Vancouver or Seattle and then all and any points east and/or south. For a
fee.
The fee brings up another point. To whom do the illegals make their payments
for travel costs advanced, so we're told, by Chinese gangsters trading in
human flesh. IN SUCH RELATIVELY SMALL GROUPS OF PEOPLE IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO
IDENTIFY THE ENFORCERS, THE BILL COLLECTORS? And are they really all back in
China threatening illegals family members? Or are there more than few
strong-arms already here, safe in possession of a Canadian passport?
One more question here, already privately and politely asked but with no
answer yet forthcoming: British Columbia provincial authorities insist it
costs $8,200 a month to take care of a teenage or child "refugee". They want
the federal government to pick up all or a portion of the tab.
Background: On Vancouver Island there are at least four first class, private
schools offering boarding facilities. (There are as many others on the
Mainland) They all specialize in English-as-a-second-language courses and
recruit heavily on the Orient. They provide their students with first class
accommodation, good food, superior health care and on-campus infirmary
facilities, counseling, recreation, laundry facilities, active sports
programs, and an all-round education second to none.
For the full room and board plus special services in ESL, THEY CHARGE LESS
THAN $30,000 A YEAR. Which sounds an enormous cost -- until placed alongside
the $98,400 a year for each new teenage refugee placed in a group home under
provincial care programs.
Maybe we could send all teenage "economic refugees" to private schools and
hand the $68,000 per head saved to the RCMP and Coast Guard to hire more
people to catch the bad guys ripping off refugees and taxpayers alike.
I'm just joking. Or am I?
(Jim Hume, Canoe on line, Wed Sept 1, 1999)
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Funny, that idea that these ships did not really make a trans-Pacific
crossing under their own steam just keeps popping up doesn't it? Another
bizarre contention is that the crew of these rustbuckets routinely scuttle
costly navigational equipment just as Canadian authorities approach. For
heaven's sake - WHY? Can these things be "read"? In which case, did they
not set out from Fukien Province? We are told that these scows are the
budget-conscious alternative to pricey smuggling operations by air.
And yet, we KNOW that in recent years that even documents (necessary for
boarding the plane, but a distinct disadvantage when it comes to making a
refugee claim) are NOT being torn up, but rather, passed on to an airborne
confederate to be recycled. With such penny pinching measures in place on
the luxury air-route, the idea that expensive navigational aids are scuttled
on the good ship El Cheapo is an ever less convincing scenario. Any
relatively bright Cocker Spaniel would wonder what's going on, or rather,
over?
___________________________
Crew ditched sophisticated navigation aids
Navy believes gear dropped into sea before boarding
VICTORIA - The crew of the third migrant ship seized off Vancouver Island
early Tuesday are believed to have thrown sophisticated navigation equipment
overboard before Canadian authorities boarded the vessel.
Commander David Kyle, the Canadian Forces' chief of naval operations for the
Pacific region, said officers boarding the battered ship found only standard
commercial navigation gear. He said IT IS UNLIKELY THE CREW WOULD HAVE BEEN
ABLE TO PILOT THE SHIP ACROSS THE PACIFIC WITHOUT THE HELP OF MORE
SOPHISTICATED EQUIPMENT.
"We seem to see a pattern of these folks disposing of real navigation aids
before they get apprehended," Cmdr. Kyle said.
"To make a landfall as accurate as some of them are making, it takes more
than just a good seaman's eye. Yet we all know we can buy a good navigation
system half the size of a laptop computer that will get you to any point in
the Pacific."
Cmdr. Kyle was speaking at a press conference where officials released new
details about the [third] ship seized at Esperanza Inlet. ...
... A coast guard engineer examined the ship's engine, which had been shut
down. Oil and diesel fuel were leaking onto the floor. Wiring was exposed.
There was a strong smell of diesel fuel and oil throughout the ship, which
was also taking on water. There were about 10,000 litres of diesel fuel on
board.
The coast guard engineer decided the ship was too much of a fire trap to
restart the engine.
(Drew Hasselback <excerpted> National Post, Thurs Sept 2, 1999)
___________________________
The Vancouver Maritime Museum wants to salvage some artifacts. Currently
housing the chronometer used by Captain George Vancouver on his 1791 voyage
of discovery, the museum is hoping to scrounge "parts of the three rusting
derelict trawlers used to smuggle illegal migrants to Canada.
Jim Delgado, Maritime Museum director: 'What we're looking for are pieces
from the wheel-house or the galley to show the conditions. ... As rusting
hulks they show the desperate means people take to come to Canada.'" (BCTV
News Sept 2, 1999)
Right now, right in the thick of the scam, an astonishing number of people
are unable to distinguish a legitimate immigrant or refugee from an
opportunistic crook -- or for that matter -- a legitimate concern from venom
spitting hatred. Is a shrine to "smuggler's sacrifices" really a good idea?
Every public school student in Vancouver will traipse past while that
"sacrifice" mushrooms with every passing year. The BC Artificial Reef
Society suggests that the ships would look "perfect at the bottom of Howe
Sound."
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More Chinese migrants disappear
Vancouver -- As many as 30 Chinese refugee claimants, among the first
boatload of migrants to hit Canadian shores, have disappeared from the city
in recent days, according to sources in the local Chinese-Canadian
community.
The disappearances have prompted fears the claimants may have been kidnapped
or told to leave by the snakeheads who arranged their illegal passage to
Canada.
They are believed to be on their way via a circuitous underground route to
New York, where they are expected to work to pay off the money -- estimated
to be at least $30,000 (U.S.) apiece -- they owe the snakeheads.
"If they don't end up in New York, the snakeheads don't get paid," said
Wilfred Wong, chairman of the United Chinese Community Enrichment Society,
which has been assisting the refugee claimants. "We are worried about their
personal safety."
Canadian immigration officials said yesterday they are taking the reports
seriously...
... Victor Wong of the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians, which has
been working closely with the released migrants, said he is concerned about
their safety.
"They are being intimidated by local Chinese gang members. They are being
followed around and stalked," said Mr. Wong, who said he was still hopeful
some of the missing might be staying with relatives or just temporarily have
dropped out of sight.
He said gang members want to give refugee claimants a message that there are
still debts to be paid. "And they are there to offer assistance, if they
want to leave and go underground."
Mr. Wong said the situation is worrisome because many claimants say they now
want to stay in Vancouver "and they are seeking our protection. These people
are victims." He said police have done little to reassure migrants worried
about snakehead threats ...
... In an interview this week with a local Chinese-language TV station,
several migrants talked about their fear of snakeheads pouncing on them.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the migrants said they have already been
approached by snakeheads in Vancouver's Chinatown, where they spend much of
their time. "They know everything. They know where we live," one said.
They said they are too frightened to contact Canadian authorities about the
situation because of fears that it will affect their claims for refugee
status.
...Immigration officials can do nothing to protect claimants from the
snakeheads once they are released.
(Globe and Mail, <excerpted> Sept 4, 1999)
--------------------
What a mess. Now that they're here, they seem to be safe only while they
are in detention (which probably explains why the two latest boatloads WERE
detained). Will they claim "refugee" status based on a legitimate fear of
retaliation from the criminal enterprise they contracted with for their
passage? A criminal enterprise, incidentally, that profits whenever Canada
allows smuggling boats to land. What happens when and if more are released?
Will the gangs decide they have to send a "stronger" message? Will Canada be
expected to provide round the clock protection for the rest of their lives?
How much would the inevitable Refugee Relocation Program cost us? It's
madness, and it's just beginning.
___________________________
"The Canadian government can't tell every Chinese in China that it's not the
best way to come into Canada. There are more than 1 billion people in
China." - Jean Chretien
(National Post, Sat Sept 4, 1999)
___________________________
'Ceaseless campaign' to sneak into Canada
He was from India and about to be deported for attempting to enter Canada
illegally. His parting shot as he headed for the plane was that he would try
again -- and so would others.
We will continue to come, he said, until such time as countries like Canada
open factories in India and pay Canadian wages.
The man, and thousands like him around the world, are part of a global
traffic in people desperate to escape their impoverished homelands for a
country they hope will afford them a better life.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that four million
people are "trafficked" every year in a global trade worth $10 billion
annually.
They travel by air, by land or by ship as they attempt to evade immigration
authorities.
Some resort to smugglers, who supply stolen or forged travel documents and
airline tickets that will take their clients halfway around the world and
back as they try to trick authorities into admitting them through an airport
unaccustomed to seeing travellers with phoney documents.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials regularly uncover scams and
share their intelligence reports with other CIC offices around the globe,
and with the immigration departments of the U.S., Britain and Australia, in
the never-ending battle against illegal migration.
Alerts are issued to watch out for Chinese migrants dressed up as more
worldy Singaporeans, Dominican prostitutes posing as nuns and Guyanese
acting like Canadian citizens who have been briefed to say they live in the
province of Montreal whose capital is Ontario.
The intelligence reports for the period Oct. 1, 1998 to Jan. 8 of this year
were obtained under freedom of information laws by lawyer Richard Kurland,
who chairs the immigration section for the Canadian Bar Association.
The reports paint a picture of a ceaseless campaign by migrants around the
world to enter Canada by any means. ...
... Near the end of 1998, customs officers were intrigued to find that most
Chinese travellers claiming refugee status in Canadian airports had flown to
Canada from France, and a handful of others had travelled the little-known
China-Mongolia-Vladivostock-Anchorage route in their attempt to circumvent
prying customs officers.
Some hopeful immigrants carry passports lost by, or stolen or purchased
from, legitimate owners. Others travel on photocopied or forged documents,
and others, the most desperate, are packed into shipping containers in
European ports and loaded as so much cargo into freighters for a voyage
across the Atlantic.
Some of the migrants are escorted by members of the smuggling rings, and
even then they may have no idea where they are.
One group of eight Chinese women was found wandering around Quebec's Dorval
Airport in November, 1998, after likely arriving from the Caribbean island
nation of Guadeloupe, and "some appeared to be 14 to 16 years old, rather
than the 20 or 21 claimed," one report said.
A group of 10 Eritreans carrying Ethiopian passports travelled overland to
Kenya, by air to Mozambique and overland to Johannesburg before being
smuggled onto a London-bound flight. On their arrival in England, members of
the group said they thought they were already in Canada.
Immigration officials at Vancouver airport reported last winter being
frustrated when trying to question improperly documented passengers from the
People's Republic of China. No matter what question the arrivals were asked,
their answers were the same.
"Bu zhi dao," they said. In English, it means: "I don't know.'"
Intelligence officers admit they will never catch all of the illegal
migrants, and not even all of those travelling on phony documents.
"Control authorities recognized long ago that, while inadpax traffic could
not be eliminated, it could be controlled," the weekly intelligence digest
for Dec. 31, 1998 said.
Several intelligence reports included warnings about the disappearance of
travel documents missing from embassies of Germany, Australia, Taiwan and
Canada. Officers were warned to be on the lookout for easy-to-forge
Icelandic and Philippine passports, and photocopies of Canadian immigration
forms.
Despite the hundreds of illegal migrants who still arrive on Canadian soil
each year, the immigration department takes heart at its success rate in
assessing the integrity of visitor visa applications.
"Only one in 509 on average of the 603,723 visitor visas issued (to
visitors, workers and people in transit) in the first nine months of 1998
were used by individuals to enter in-Canada refugee claims," an intelligence
report for the week of Nov. 27, 1998 said. ...
... And on the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, counterfeit copies of the
travel documents of Australia, Canada, Belgium, Greece and Norway are all
available, for a price, a multi-nation forum on human smuggling was told
last year.
(Vancouver Sun, <excerpted> Sat Sept 4, 1999)
___________________________
Simon Fraser University's Don Devoretz is a long time immigration booster -
but even he appears impatient with bloating abuses:
"Although there has been an attempt to characterize the latest arrivals
as persecuted by China's one-child policy, the professor dismisses that
idea with a snort. 'THE CHINESE DO NOT MAKE PEOPLE HAVE LATE-TERM
ABORTIONS; IT'S JUST HARDER TO GET SECOND CHILDREN INTO SCHOOL.' ...
Test potential migrants' commitment to life in Canada. 'Don't let them
settle in Vancouver or Toronto right away. Make them go to Prince George
for a couple of years, learn English and become integrated into the
community.' Once word gets back to Fujian province that the path to the
Golden Mountain runs through such a formidable commitment, only genuine
refugees will apply." (Globe and Mail, Sat Sept 4, 1999)
___________________________
Welcome to Wonderland
As usual, Canada has got it all wrong: if hundreds of illegals enjoying the
red carpet treatment while predatory gangs grow fat is a concern; then you
are either over-reacting or xenophobic. How shameful to see a man who
believed in his oath treated thus: (You might want to ask your MP about Cpl.
Read and this nation's gratitude)
'I AM NOT SURPRISED . . . I KNOW I HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING'
"So what happens to an RCMP officer who goes public with information his
superiors don't want to investigate?
In the case of Cpl. Robert Read, he gets ostracized and suspended and
becomes the target of both an internal inquiry and a criminal investigation.
The RCMP, in suspending Read with pay, said the 24-year veteran 'disgraced
the force' by going public about the way his bosses were handling the
investigation into the alleged tampering of the immigration computer at the
Canadian diplomatic mission in Hong Kong.
They have accused him of making classified material available to The
Province -- which he did not.
Read cannot wear the RCMP uniform or be a Mountie. He has to report to the
RCMP 'A' division in Ottawa between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day, except on
weekends and holidays.
The married father of two also is not allowed to travel beyond a
100-kilometre radius from his house unless he gets special permission.
In addition, Read has been ordered to return his badge, the keys to his
office and his firearms and cannot enter any RCMP premises without an
escort.
(Vancouver Province, Fri Sept 3, 1999)
------------------------
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Gilles Moreau confirmed Read was suspended with pay as
of 5:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday.
He said READ, 54, IS BEING INVESTIGATED in connection with the Hong Kong
incident and 'how certain information pertaining to the criminal
investigation into the Canadian consulate-general found its way into the
public domain.'
Moreau said a separate investigation into whether Read has committed any
CRIMINAL OFFENCE had also been launched.
Read, a 24-year veteran of the force, was attached to the RCMP immigration
and passport section in Ottawa. Last week, he told The Province he had filed
an obstruction-of-justice complaint against his superiors, alleging that the
RCMP were perpetuating a coverup of the penetration of the immigration
computer at the Canadian commission (now consulate-general) in Hong Kong.
The alleged infiltration of the computers was initially discovered by
then-immigration control officer Brian McAdam, an internationally renowned
expert on triads, or the Chinese Mafia.
McAdam alerted Ottawa and an investigation was initiated by the department
of external affairs and the RCMP.
The core allegations were that 788 files containing sensitive background
information on businessmen and criminals had been deleted from the Computer
Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS).
The tampering is said to be the work of locally hired staff, linked to
triads, who had given themselves high security clearance.
Another allegation involved the disappearance of about 2,000 blank visa
forms.
In addition, certain immigration staff at the diplomatic mission were
suspected of accepting 'bribes.'
The initial investigation was stopped shortly after it started in 1992
because of a lack of evidence.
This was despite direct testimony about files going missing and fake
immigration stamps being found in the office of a locally hired staff
member.
After it passed through the hands of a series of RCMP officers, Read was
assigned the file in September 1996.
He made some significant discoveries and found gaping holes in the original
investigation.
'I tried to raise this with my superiors but got nowhere,' he said last
night.
'I went to my bosses, the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, CSIS and the
auditor-general . . . I had nowhere else to go, so I went to the people
through The Province.
'I am resolved to see this to the end.'
Frustrated that certain leads were not being followed, Read made his case
public as part of a Province investigation into the Canadian diplomatic
mission in Hong Kong.
Now some of the people he has pointed the finger at are investigating him.
McAdam, who alerted the authorities to the goings-on at the diplomatic
mission, described Read as a 'courageous cop who told the public about a
breach of national security that was being hidden for seven years.'
'Instead of going after the crooks, they are going after this officer, who
has done a tremendous job investigating this file,' he said.
Moreau, the RCMP spokesman, said the investigation into the improprieties in
Hong Kong is continuing.
An immigration department official said anyone found to have entered Canada
with the help of the deleted files or blank visas will be arrested and
deported.
(Vancouver Province, Fri Sept 3, 1999)
___________________________
Excerpt from Robert Read's suspension letter:
Between the 21st day of November, 1996, and the 27th day of August, 1999, at
or near Ottawa, in the province of Ontario, you conducted yourself in a
disgraceful manner that brings discredit on the Force, contrary to section
39 (1) of the Code of Conduct, being section 39 (1) of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police Regulations (1988). While you were a member of the RCMP and
in the course of a criminal investigation pertaining to alleged corruption
at the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong, you obtained classified information
as well as copies of various classified documents. You made some or all of
the classified information and/or classified documents known to the media
and/or Mr. Brian McAdam. Some or all of the information made known to the
media and/or Mr. Brian McAdam by you was published in The Vancouver Province
newspaper on 99-08-26.
_____________________________
HOW HIGH DOES THE CORRUPTION GO?
ASK YOUR MP TO INSIST ON ANSWERS!
-- Your MP's constituency office is listed in the BLUE pages of the phone
book - CALL
-- To find out who your MP is:
http://canada.gc.ca/directories/mp_direct_e.html
You can write your MP postage free:
c/o House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
-- there's plenty of time left before Parliament resumes
(a real letter carries more weight than an e-mail)
-- BC residents may wish to ask their MLA what this is costing them?
-- e-mail Elinor Caplan
Caplan.E@parl.gc.ca
or write - c/o House of Commons, etc.