This past Monday night - just three days before the cargo people were redistributed - there was an acrimonious Donnybrook of a meeting between government officials and locals who had not bargained on a refugee camp as neighbourhood conversation piece. A report from that meeting:

>> (Reporter): ...THERE WAS STUNNING NEWS THAT BIGGER BOATS MAY BE ON THE WAY.

>> THE EXPANSION IS BECAUSE OF SOME OF THE INFORMATION WE'VE BEEN RECEIVING FROM OVERSEAS, WE HAVE HAD TO PLAN FOR ARRIVALS OF LARGER NUMBERS ON A VESSEL, OR MULTIPLE VESSELS ARRIVING AT THE SAME TIME.

>>>"The boatpeople are gone, moved out [Thurseday] from the detention centre at Work Point Barracks and neighbours in Esquimalt might have expected they might have a day of peace and quiet at last.

>> If that's what they were hoping for, that isn't what they got. There was more noise and disruption than ever before. If you didn't know what was going on, you would swear a riot was underway ... (dogs barking)

>> (Reporter): Worst case scenario: the boatpeople detained at Work Point Barracks have taken over the facility. RCMP dressed in full riot gear spring into action. They storm the building. (dogs barking) But Work Point Barracks isn't filled with rioting boatpeople. The place is empty for the first time in more than two months. What's happening here is the RCMP's version of a military war game.

>> (Official): This could be another max prison riot that as you know occurred in the early 80s. This could be a riot at institutions.

>> (Reporter): It also could be a riot by Chinese migrants.

>> (Official): It could be. But we're not expecting that.

>> (Reporter): Neighbours have seen just about everything since the boatpeople arrived. You would think by now they deserve some peace and quiet.

>> (Official): They were all given notices by mail yesterday. We hand delivered 250 notices [to] tell people we were training. I think people should be happy that we're training. By training, by being effective and efficient in our operations, we ensure the safety of the public, the safety of the members and the safety of the migrants. So this is a positive thing. Let's remember another thing, this is an active military base. This isn't Shaughnessy Heights, this isn't North Delta. This is an active military base and we're training on a military base facility.

>> (Reporter): The riot squad attacked its imaginary targets three times. Future boatpeople with bad intentions beware. If there's trouble, these Canadians don't intend to ask questions first.

Almost from first sighting, the care - and especially the feeding - of the illegals has been contentious. Just before that Monday night meeting, CHEK TV News reported:

>> Reporter: Reform MP Gary Lunn has a bone to pick tonight over the duty assigned to the police officer who is part of a Chinese supervising team in Esquimalt. His duties will include TASTING THE FOODS and choosing some of the videos for them -- extreme violence and explicit sex a no-no. But Reform MP Gary Lunn thinks this is hard to swallow:

"In June I did some research looking at the RCMP staffing levels in British Columbia -- over 400 positions in British Columbia that we don't even have the bodies to fill. In Sydney alone, in my riding our RCMP ... was understaffed by 20%, the vice squad was down, the commercial crimes section didn't have staffing -- and yet there seems to be a blank cheque out there with these migrants. I've traveled across this country between British Columbia and Ottawa and I don't have a problem with the food anywhere I go in this country. [There's] no reason to see why we have to have someone check the food to make sure 'is it okay?' before the migrants eat it."

"From a distance they looked like a group of young athletes as they descend the stairs from the aircraft . . . except some members of their welcoming committee were wearing Kevlar vests and carried sidearms. If that wasn't enough to discourage escape, there was an RCMP dog handler and dog positioned near the foot of the stairs.Dressed in jogging suits and white sneakers, 157 illegal Chinese immigrants arrived at the Prince George Airport at noon Thursday aboard a twin-engine Royal Air jet chartered by Immigration Canada. The jet rolled up on the tarmac near the NT Air hangar near the main terminal where it was met by a guard of RCMP, corrections staff, deputy sheriffs and immigration officials who arrived with a 40-seat bus and a convoy of passenger vans. A stiff wind was blowing from the west, chilling the reporters outside a perimeter fence who snapped pictures and filmed the arrival from 50 metres away.

The first immigrants, wearing maroon coloured jogging suits, descended the stairs nimbly. It wasn't until a half a dozen came down the ladder, their hands held at an odd angle in front of them, that someone realized they're handcuffed. They looked to be about the same age, early 20s, and all are built slim. Some have a full head of hair while others have had their heads shaved. The file of maroon jogging suits is replaced by a group in gray and then some in green. The greens aren't handcuffed when they step off the plane, but had their wrists bound with plastic ties at the bottom of the stairs. They too are slim but seem to have more hair.

Are these some of the 29 women who are part of the contingent of illegals? Distance and baggy clothing have combined to win the battle of the sexes. When the bus and vans were loaded, the convoy forms up and proceeds away from the terminal, across the runway via an airport service road and turned onto the Old Cariboo Highway. It's met by an RCMP cruiser escort that led it to its destinatin five minutes away at the old Prince George Regional Correctional Centre. The bus returned for the final 40 illegals who've been left on the aircraft under guard.The old jail will be their home for the next six or eight months, while their eligibility to stay in Canada is decided, said jail director Bob Riches.Riches said the Chinese will be treated the same as other inmates and will be FED THE SAME DIET except rice will be substituted for potatoes or starches. They'll be locked in their cells from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and locked in the day units from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m."

________________________

"OTTAWA -- For the first time in three years, the government's annual financial report won the approval of Auditor General Denis Desautels. Desautels had refused to sign previous annual reports because of what he said were ACCOUNTING TRICKS by the government. ... The federal balance sheet showed $2.9 billion in extra cash Thursday for the latest fiscal year. ... What was not highlighted in financial documents released with the minister's statement was that he had to use a $3-billion CONTINGENCY FUND to reach a surplus."

"The surplus in the EI fund is predicted to grow to preposterous proportions -- about $26-billion in 1999-2000, up from $19-billion the previous year."

________________________

"The federal government won't commit to helping Toronto control the spread of tuberculosis (TB) from refugees and immigrants, despite an urgent plea for help from the city's health board. Citizenship and Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan 'WANTS MORE INFORMATION BEFORE SHE AGREES TO A MEETING,' her assistant Rene Mercier said yesterday.

On Tuesday, Toronto's health board decided it needs an immediate meeting with Caplan to respond to increasing numbers of refugees and immigrants who are testing positive for TB. About 330 Tibetan refugees arrived in Toronto last year from the U.S., including eight who had active TB."

"The board has begun screening the Tibetan refugees. Dr. Yaffe said that 18 per cent of the 60 screened have a history of active TB and 92 per cent are skin-test positive, 'which means at least that they have inactive TB.' ... Eight cases of TB have been reported in this group, including five that are multidrug resistant. ... There are 450 to 500 new cases of tuberculosis each year in the city, which amount to 25 per cent of all new cases in the country, and that 90 per cent of these occur in people who were born in countries where TB is endemic."

________________________

However, the director of the Toronto Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement, and professor of something called 'cultural pluralism and health', Dr. Morton Beiser, says: "This doesn't mean that immigrants and refugees bring TB with them. The conditions newcomers live under when they come to a new country may be as important as prior exposure to pathogens in explaining any tendency to develop illness. Turn-of-the-century immigrants in New York also had high rates of TB, not because they were sick when they arrived, but because they were forced to work in badly ventilated sweatshops, ate poor diets and lived in overcrowded tenements."

"One of the lesser known aspects of the recent federal cabinet shuffle is that Lucienne Robillard wanted to continue as minister for citizenship and immigration. She had told Jean Chrétien so. But he moved her out anyway. Liberal MPs from immigrant-rich urban centres, especially Toronto, had been complaining that she was indifferent to the problems of their constituents. Worse, she lacked a political antenna. In floating changes to immigration rules last year, she had let some ILL-CONCEIVED ideas slip through, causing a ruckus among Liberal supporters."

"According to Statistics Canada, 'In 1996, 85% of all immigrants -- and 93% of those who arrived between 1991 and 1996 -- lived in a census metropolitan area.' A glance at the map suggests that Canada is an enormous, unsettled country. And so it is, with good reason: just five per cent of Canada's land mass is arable. If this is being relentlessly paved over, shouldn't we at least attempt to determine what constitutes sustainable immigration?"

"'This idea that we don't have enough room here is ridiculous,' Dr. Hedy Fry, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women, said on the CBC the other night. 'I would also like to add one thing. I wonder how the aboriginal people, when they saw the boatloads of colonialists coming into their country, I wonder if they had a tough immigration and refugee policy in those days [sic]? They didn't have a choice, did they?'

No, they didn't -- even though, just like our unscreened refugees bearing tuberculosis and AIDS, those 'boatloads of colonialists' never went through any proper medical tests and thus spread all kinds of diseases to the host community. ... Dr. Fry says that, if the Indians and Inuit put up with boatloads of' colonialists,' so should we. But the point is, as adherents to the multiculturalist creed would be the first to shout, the aboriginal peoples LOST -- they lost their continent, their culture, their economy.

... Is modern Canada so steeped in self-loathing that it's prepared to sacrifice its own identity in mitigation? Apparently so. Unlike the Indians, we didn't wait to have it stolen from us: We renounced it voluntarily -- as is made apparent by this week's wretched report on the feeble Canadian Museum of Civilization (chairwoman: Adrienne Clarkson), where the reality of our Franco-British foundation is deemed to be too provocative to more recent immigrants. Of course, if it weren't for the British, Dr. Fry wouldn't BE secretary of state for multiculturalism, since it's an unfortunate fact that the cult of multiculturalism has only really taken off in British-derived societies (the world's enthusiasts for diversity are notable mainly for their homogeneity). But, in the minister's cheap sneer, what you mainly hear is a pathological contempt for the culture that enabled her eminence: So what if these boats are ferrying fodder for organized crime? Wasn't colonialism the most organized crime of all time? Those Chinese women who find themselves paying off their passage in the whorehouses of Vancouver and Toronto will, I'm sure, be gratified to know that the federal government regards them as a moral corrective to the dark stain of Canada's history."

"The important thing is that the boatpeople get to tell their stories"

That seems unlikely at the rate they're disappearing: "Nearly TWO-THIRDS of the 76 refugee claimants from the first boat who were not kept in detention are believed to have disappeared into the clutches of organized gangs acting on behalf of the human cargo smugglers."

And the solution is SO elegantly Canadian: the best way to preserve your rights is by suspending them altogether

"ALL the boat-people incidents detected so far have shown clear connections to Chinese criminal gangs. ... It is highly probable that the intensified efforts by the United States to counter this growing problem will result in increased pressures on Canada, as Chinese migrants persist in seeking to acquire a foothold in North America."

"TORONTO -- Chinese migrants are being smuggled to Toronto in growing numbers, stirring fears of the crime and social problems that human cargo operations breed.

Police and community leaders say an increasing percentage of the Chinese spirited into Canada are shunning the long-popular destination of New York City, choosing Toronto instead. Authorities say the newcomers arrive with dreams of a better life, but also come burdened by huge debts owed to the smugglers -- obligations that can drive them into the unseemly, but lucrative, trades of sex, drugs and extortion.

The clandestine influx of migrants has also roused indignation among longtime members of Toronto's Chinese community.

The federal government must take swift action to send a firm message to smugglers, said Steve Ang, a real estate developer and cultural leader. 'It's bad enough now, but if nobody responds, it's going to get worse.' The city's lively downtown Chinese district is abuzz with rumours that some of the 600 migrants smuggled by sea from China's Fujian province to British Columbia this summer have ended up in Toronto. But authorities say these newcomers represent only a fraction of the annual Fukinese arrivals.

Numbers are sketchy, but Toronto police Det. Peter Yuen estimates between 500 and 1,000 Fukinese quietly slip into the city each year. They are drawn by Canada's social-support system, the presence of friends or relatives and the jobs available in garment factories, restaurants and supermarkets. Many have little trouble making refugee claims, obtaining social benefits and finding places to live. Some are leery of heading to the United States, where a law passed two years ago enables authorities to detain claimants for the duration of their refugee hearings.

'These migrants don't want to go there, take the chance of getting caught. Here, anyone can walk into an immigration office and claim refugee status, and the process is not that strenuous,' says Det. Yuen, a member of the city's special police task force on Asian crime.

'I would say that for every 100 that originally intended to go to New York, 50 per cent will stay in Toronto.'

Some newcomers, who pledge as much as $40,000 for passage from China, are swayed by the fact they can save up to $5,000 by dropping the final leg of their journey, from Toronto to New York City. Arriving in Ontario by truck or car from the West Coast, migrants usually set about trying to scrape together enough to pay the thousands of dollars owed to their smugglers. Though they often work under the table in Toronto for as little as $6 an hour, they still earn more at their menial jobs than they could at home.

Mr. Ang, whose own ancestral roots stretch back to Fujian, says many migrants work hard, obey the law and sometimes save the money needed to start businesses. Strolling down Dundas Street West in the heart of Chinatown, Mr. Ang points out grocery stores and knick-knack shops run by people who arrived in recent years from the Fujian port city of Fuzhou, the source of many newcomers. Live crabs, papaya and Chinese grapefruit compete with toys, jewelry and clothing for the attention of shoppers who mill about the thriving Toronto neighbourhood. English-language classes and immigration services are within walking distance. Mr. Ang says it is impossible to tell who has come to Canada by skirting the rules.

As for those who arrive with the help of smugglers, he sympathizes with their desire for a better life, but objects to their means. 'Their way of doing it is totally illegal. And it should not be condoned.'

Police acknowledge that many migrants elude Canada's security measures. 'I couldn't tell you the figure, but I know there are a lot of people who come in undetected,' said Det.-Const. Raymond Miu of Toronto's Combined Forces Asian Investigative Unit.

Although only a small percentage of the arrivals are criminals, that provides little comfort to police.

'If you go through the proper channels, your background will be checked,' said Det.-Const. Miu. 'But these people, who've never been checked, you will never know who they are.'

Det.-Const. Miu fears a return to Toronto's difficulties of the late 1980s, when a wave of Chinese migrants from Canton included a number of troublesome criminals.

But there's a more pressing problem: the smugglers, known as snakeheads, not only reap large profits from transporting people, they frequently exploit the newcomers.

Early on, the snakeheads put migrants through a series of training sessions on how to answer questions from immigration officials and where to obtain legal services and social benefits. Women are counselled to say they oppose China's one-child policy, while men are told to portray themselves as victims of Chinese restrictions on religious or democratic freedoms.

The smugglers, many involved with criminal groups, are known to charge interest rates of up to 900 per cent on the balance of the fees migrants owe.

While many men find legitimate work, others are lured into crime. 'If you're a bit ruthless, or you have some potential, then they'll recruit you into the gangs,' said Det. Yuen. Some women end up in massage parlours or brothels. Many migrants are abused, but are too afraid to go to police.

'We know there's a lot of assaults, extortion, threatening. Females have been raped, we know that. But we don't have any people coming forward to report it to us,' said Det. Yuen. 'We do go to these massage parlours, and these girls fit the profile of a migrant, perfectly, to the tee. I know that, she knows that. But she won't tell me. It's very frustrating.'

Det. Yuen said those who manage to pay their smugglers often find themselves with few places to turn. 'The girls are selling their bodies until they pay off their debts. And by the time that's done, they really have nowhere to go, so they stay in the same business.'

The smuggling of Fukinese to New York City has spawned squalid prostitution dens, extortion rackets and kidnapping, said Jim Fisher, Asian crime specialist with the national Criminal Intelligence Service in Ottawa. He believes Toronto could experience the same serious problems if trends continue. 'To me, that's the major concern out of this whole phenomenon.'

As many as 50 to 60 per cent of Fukinese eventually gain refugee status, but even a large number of those who are rejected remain in Canada, say police. Most assume phoney names, making it extremely difficult for authorities to prove they have come from China, let alone return them there.

The Chinese community is becoming anxious about the problems smuggling rings bring to Toronto, said Joe Tseng, a resident of suburban Scarborough who serves as chairman of a police liaison committee. 'The influx is having a definite impact on Toronto. There will be a lot more Fukinese showing up ... but whether they are legal or not, I don't know,' said Mr. Tseng.

'They will never advertise that they are illegals.'"

"For many Chinese illegals, the road to Gold Mountain dead-ends in Toronto, leaving them penniless, helpless, exploited. Unable to speak the language, unaware of their rights, they toil for slave-like wages in restaurants, supermarkets and massage parlours in Toronto's Chinatown. They'll endure the isolation and the misery, somethines for years, to pay back the fees to the gang members who plucked them from their villages and brought them to the promised land. And everyone involved keeps quiet about it. 'The fear keeps everyone in line, the fear keeps everybody quiet,' said a prominent Toronto lawyer with close ties to Toronto's Chinese community. 'They fear for themselves and they fear for the families they left behind.' They're not alone. Even prominent community leaders - including the lawyer - refuse to go on the record when discussing the explosive subject of smuggling illegals. 'The gangs behind this are absolutely ruthless,' the lawyer said. 'There are huge numbers of people involved and huge money involved.' ... 'There are two reasons why people are afraid to talk about this,' said a veteran newspaper reporter who has covered Toronto's Chinese community for years. 'One is they are afraid of the gangs; the second is that, despite what they say, they need these people to work in their restaurants and supermarkets.'"

"Do the illegal boat people know they will be forced to become connected with crime?

'So they know? What do they care? Everybody is in it for themselves,' he says. ... 'In this country, telling a lie is a way of life. When it becomes survival it is almost a virtue.'"

(Linda Slobodian, Toronto Sun, Sunday, September 19, 1999 - interview with hotel, restaurant and property owner, Yi Fong Lin, Lanjiang, Fujian Province)

"Det. Michelle Moffat, of the Vancouver Police gang-crime unit, said she was shocked to hear about an Edmonton UPS courier being stabbed to death allegedly by a member of a gang, in a case of road rage. She said it's easy to give the finger.

'But, they don't forget about it. They don't care if they live or die.'

In Vancouver, a partial list of the youth gangs includes the Chinese gangs, Vietnamese, Russians, Hispanics, East Indians, Filipinos, Persians, blacks and Cambodians.

The gang crime unit co-ordinator has computer files listing 3,600 names of gang members and another file listing the names of more than 13,000 associates. ...

... She told another story of a young member of a Vietnamese gang in Vancouver who held up his parents at gun-point, along with two other gang members. All three were wearing balaclavas. But the parents recognized the new clothes they'd bought for their son. Later, when court time arrived, the father said it wasn't his son."

"Police say they have dealt a major blow to Asian-based organized crime in Alberta after more than 300 officers raided dozens of homes and businesses in Edmonton and Red Deer Friday. Twenty-eight people, including high-level crime figures, were arrested and warrants issued for 14 others.

More than 300 charges relating to drugs and involvement in organized crime have been laid in the crackdown. Two men were taken Friday morning to hospital in critical condition after leaping four storeys to the pavement from an apartment balcony at 12925 65th Street as police moved to enter the suite. One of the men died later that afternoon. The other was in critical condition on life support late Friday, said police information officer Sgt. Bryan Boulanger. Homicide detectives are investigating the death and are treating it as a fatality, not a criminal investigation. Irene Krawec saw the men fall past her apartment window about 10 a.m. "I just woke up and there was a bang and a bunch of noise upstairs and I looked out. It was really scary," she said.

"They were just screaming. I heard a flop, a real hard one." She said the men, one Asian-looking and one white, lay motionless on the ground. Edmonton Police Chief John Lindsay said the sweep will put a "serious dent" in drug-gang activities. Police say they believe the arrests will be a "serious blow to organized crime activity in Edmonton and throughout Alberta," Lindsay said in a joint press conference with RCMP Asst. Commissioner Don McDermid.

At 10 a.m., heavily armed Edmonton police, RCMP and Calgary police simultaneously raided 40 residences and businesses in Edmonton. Twelve of the raids were considered by police to be high risk. Lindsay said some major figures in Edmonton's organized crime scene were caught. "We've got some very high-level people that have been identified as a result of this through charges. So yes, I think I can give some assurance that we have not only disrupted the worker bees, we have disrupted the very top echelon as well. "These are the operating minds who give the instructions for things that are brought into Edmonton and how they are sold."

Lindsay stopped short of saying the arrests would end months of violence on city streets as two organized drug groups warred with each other. Police blame organized crime for at least SEVEN SHOOTINGS AND TWO SLAYINGS. Hai Van Tran, 18, was killed in a drive-by shooting near Telus Field on Aug. 18. The body of Stephen William Johnson, 19, was found in a field near Darwell, about 80 km west of Edmonton on Sept. 1. He had been shot repeatedly. At the same time as the operation started in Edmonton, 25 RCMP and Calgary police officers conducted simultaneous raids in Red Deer, charging 15 people with drug-related and organized crime offences. Red Deer RCMP said they had been investigating the group for three months.

The raids are the result of a 14-month investigation into cocaine trafficking on the streets of Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Red Deer, Ponoka and areas of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia. In advance of Friday's raids, police in Alberta seized three kilograms of cocaine and crack cocaine and nearly $300,000 in cash.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner McDermid said the raids were only the beginning of a massive police effort to suppress organized crime in Alberta. Hundreds more arrests are expected in the coming weeks. "The bottom line is that as a result of today's joint forces operation, we have made significant inroads into organized criminal activity in our community, but we are not stopping here," said McDermid. Both Lindsay and McDermid said more money is needed to combat organized crime and laws changed to protect its victims, witnesses and members of juries.

A taxi driver who was nearly hit by stray bullets in the Tran slaying told The Journal he has been repeatedly followed and run off the road. The Edmonton Police Service has been sharply criticized for refusing to discuss what steps it was taking to control the violence. On Friday, Lindsay said he now hoped people understood why the force was "playing its cards so close to the chest." Both senior officers said the operation put a serious strain on their budgets and they made a pitch for increased provincial and federal funding."

"LOS ANGELES -- Two lawyers have been indicted in an alleged scheme to bring Hungarian mothers into the U-S illegally, so they could give up their babies. A federal indictment names Janice Doezie of Villa Park and Heather Barnett of VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA. The indictment says associates of Doezie would recruit Hungarian women willing to give up their babies for adoption for between eight and 22-thousand dollars. The indictment says the women were smuggled across the Canadian border into the U-S. Then they were taken to Orange County. Doezie is charged with conspiracy, bringing illegal immigrants into the U-S for commercial gain, lying to federal investigators and witness tampering. Barnett is charged with conspiracy. The indictment grew out of an investigation by U-S, Canadian and Hungarian authorities and the Irvine Police Department.

"Two men who sold their Canadian passports to illegal immigrant smuggling gangs have been arrested in separate cases. They are believed to be among a growing number of emigrants to Canada the Sunday Morning Post revealed were travelling to Hong Kong to hand over their passports to organisers in return for cash and expenses-paid trips.

A man, 26, was arrested at the Lowu border crossing to Shenzhen carrying six forged Chinese passports, an Immigration Department spokesman said. The Canadian had already sold his adopted homeland's passport before leaving for the mainland.

Another man, in his 20s and born in Taiwan, had sold his Canadian passport in Hong Kong, reported it missing to the consulate but was found out when an illegal immigrant turned up with it in Canada, he said."

Deadbeat immigration sponsors are costing the welfare system a whopping $100 million-$120 million a year, according to a confidential government document obtained by The Sunday Sun. Province-wide, as many as 17,000 welfare cases are because of sponsors reneging on their commitment to support immigrants to this country, the document shows. When combined with the welfare tab for refugee claimants, the welfare costs hit the $120-million to $140-million mark, the document reveals. "Family class immigrants may apply for social assistance when the sponsorship breaks down. Recent figures indicate that there are up to 17,000 cases on social assistance due to sponsorship default," the report says.

COST ESTIMATES

"It is estimated that this cost, coupled with the cost related to social assistance for Inland (refugee) Claimants, totals between $120 million and $140 million per year," the report says. The figure for sponsorship breakdown is around $100 million. One source laid the blame for the immigration sponsorship boondoggle at the door of the federal government. While Ottawa is responsible for approving the immigrant and the sponsor, and is a party to the sponsorship pact, the feds don't enforce terms of the sponsorship, said the source, who asked not to be named.

PROVINCE ON HOOK

"Once the deadbeat sponsor relinquishes their responsibility to the person who has immigrated, if that person goes on welfare, the province has to pick up the slack, and we don't think that's fair," the source said. Family-class immigrants are immediate family members who come to this country and are supported by their sponsors for up to 10 years under the terms of a sponsorship agreement. A sponsor commits to providing essential needs for the sponsored immigrant and his or her dependents. The agreement also requires the sponsored immigrant to refrain from relying on government assistance. It's estimated between 5% and 15% of sponsors renege on their commitment. "Obviously there's no implication to the deadbeat sponsor and it becomes the province's responsibility from a financial perspective," the source said. The province pays 80% of welfare costs, with municipalities picking up 20%.

"It is almost beyond my comprehension why Canadians are not more fed up with our government's bumbling and fumbling over our immigration policies - or lack thereof - which make us the laughingstock of the world. While boatloads of illegal so-called refugees land in unseaworthy, rusty old tubs off the West Coast, about the only reassurance we get from our incompetent new Minister of Immigration is that all this should stop as rougher seas sweep the Pacific during the fall and winter. Then, to add insult to injury, the Chret refuses to listen to the Chinese leadership when it tells him that the problem lies with Canada's lax and loose immigration policies. Yet it is precisely these policies that provide both smugglers and their illegal victims with such great incentives to run the gauntlet through our shores.

There are so many things that depress and distress me about our government's virtual abdication of authority and responsibility over the near anarchy and chaos they have inflicted upon the country's immigration system that I hardly know where to start. Perhaps the best place to begin is with the debasement in value of our citizenship which all this entails. If all one has to do to gain this prized citizenship is jump ashore in Canada and holler 'refugee,' then we obviously do not think it is that valuable.

Just as maddening is the fact that few, if any, of these recent arrivals are in any sense of the word legitimate refugees, at least as I define that term. To me, such refugees are those fleeing totalitarian regimes that they have been fighting in order to secure democracy, freedom and pluralism, and under which they are bound to suffer dire consequences if they are forced to return.

Most of these recent arrivals, by their own admission, are simply seeking a better life which is their every right. But like others seeking such a life here in Canada, these people should follow our normal immigration procedures. Otherwise, they are nothing more or less than illegitimate queue-jumpers.

Also very worrisome is the health of many of these people who have gone through no formal health examination before they left their homelands. Some have already been found to be carrying dangerous communicable diseases.

Finally, as a result of our do-nothing policies, we can expect many more boatloads of such people next year as soon as the seas subside. In effect, we are encouraging all manner of smugglers to continue to profit handsomely by bringing more and more people here under very dangerous circumstances.

So what should we do about the appalling situation? The answer is very obvious and simple. All such illegal arrivals should be flown to their home countries as soon as possible. This is precisely what Australia and other countries are doing, hoping, in the process, to get the message across to smugglers, and those they exploit, that they just can't get away with it.

The problem with this approach, of course, is that we now have a ridiculous Supreme Court ruling that grants anyone landing on our shores all the rights we enjoy as Canadian citizens - even more, actually - including food, lodging and full legal representation. If we cannot legislate around this madness, then we must hire more staff to process these people faster while satisfying the Court's ludicrous requirements.

Any countries that refuse to take back those of their citizens who have fled illegally to our shores should be told, in no uncertain terms, THAT WE WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY IMMIGRANTS FROM THEIR COUNTRIES - LEGAL OR OTHERWISE - UNTIL THEY DO SO.

We should deal much more harshly with those smuggling these people into our country. In their case, I would ship them back to their native countries with the understanding that they will be prosecuted there to the full extent of their laws. We should obviously help with such prosecutions by providing all the evidence and witnesses their authorities require.

Again, if any such home countries refuse to deal with these smugglers to the full extent of their laws, their citizens too should be denied legal entry to this country as immigrants.

I have written many times before that Canadian citizenship is worth more than any other in this world. To have a government that doesn't appreciate this, and a people who don't insist that it do so, drives me crazy."

(John Crispo, Toronto Sun, Saturday September 25, 1999) Crispo is emeritus professor of political economy - University of Toronto

"Why Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers should wish to smother Parliament is obvious. It's easier to get on with the important things - meeting and mollifying interest groups, developing policies, handing out money, making speeches, and collecting donations - if you don't have to answer questions from your enemies for two-thirds of the year. The public disinterest in politics this engenders doesn't hurt either, as this favours the incumbent over the opposition. ...

... The courts joined the parliamentary health care team in 1982, prescribing an activist regimen which has seriously undermined an already weakened body politic. As the soon-to-depart Chief Justice of the Supreme Court succinctly put it - if government (i.e. Parliament) doesn't act, the courts will. And they have, as have human rights commissions, using the Charter of Rights sledgehammer to force changes to laws and programs approved by Parliament. And why not? They don't have to find the money for the changes (Parliament does!). "Custom" says politicians shouldn't criticize the courts; and the media are usually on-side."

Barring another extension - Parliament should resume sitting in about two weeks. If you've been waiting for maximum effect, now is the time to write your MP and the Minister of Immigration.

-- Your MP's constituency office is listed in the BLUE pages of the phone book - CALL -- To find out who your MP is: (or to contact anyone in Parliament) 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 still time 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?

-- Ontario residents may wish to enquire about the crumbling health system and the additional expenses associated with TB costs

-- e-mail Elinor Caplan Caplan.E@parl.gc.ca or write - c/o House of Commons, etc.