On August 5, the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee publicly launched a national petition, primarily over the Internet, which calls on the Parliament of Canada top invoke the "notwithstanding clause" of the Constitution and overturn a series of judicial decisions which have all but made it impossible to secure Canada's borders.

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The press conference announcing the launching of this petition was held at noon outside the Work Point Barracks at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt where the 123 Chinese illegals had been held prior to the release of 83 of them and the transfer of the rest to Vancouver.

CFIRC Director Paul Fromm appeared that morning on the Joe Easingwood show on C-FAX in Victoria. Every caller supported the call for the deportation of the illegals.

About a dozen Victoria supporters attended the press conference, as did C-FAX and CBC Radio, CHEK-TV and a reporter for the Vancouver Province. Press coverage the next day included these media and the Globe and Mail and the Victoria Times Colonist.

Several reporters distinguished themselves by the stupidity and hostility of their questions. One demanded to know how Mr. Fromm would respond to the charge that CFIRC was racist. He retorted: "How is it racist to insist that would-be immigrants or refugees apply through proper channels and obey the law." Another reporter snarkily insisted that CFIRC would have more credibility if there had been visible minorities there. Mr. Fromm countered that Majority Canadians certainly had a right to stand for their point of view during a virtual invasion of their country.

The hostility of the press was too much for several CFIRC supporters, who attacked the reporters for their rudeness and bias.

Said Sidney Carroll, a Victoria teacher: "I'm tired of garbage being washed up on the shores of my country."

The petition has received a heavy volume of hits since the press publicity, says Webmaster Marc Lemire.

Military and Victoria city police shadowed the news conference and took numerous pictures, apparently to intimidate free and peaceful citizens from having their say on issues of the day. CFIRC's videographer, in turn, photographed the government spooks.

While in Victoria, August 5, CFIRC Director Paul Fromm and Webmaster/videographer Marc Lemire tracked down many of the recently released 83 Chinese illegals to the premises of the First Victoria Metropolitan United Church on whose premises are located the offices of the Interrcultural Association of Greater Victoria.

This association, according to a CBC Newsworld report on August 5, had started recruiting more personnel and translators a week before knowing that the illegals would be released. "How did this Association know the illegals would be released?" demanded Paul Fromm. "Was the fix in from the very beginning to release most of them and reward the scamsters?"

The illegals, well dressed and plump looked remarkably robust for people who had survived a recent 39-day harrowing voyage. The illegals proved elusive and shy, trying to shield their faces from the camera.

Across the street from the church where the illegals were being welcomed by elements of Canadian society, a lone homeless White Canadian was asleep on the steps of an Anglican church with his few worldly possessions and his dog. Do-gooders seemed decidedly less interested in helping Canadian homeless persons than they did in assisting the illegals.

On Wednesday, July 28, many Canadians were outraged by media reports that the illegal ingrates had gone on a hunger strike to protest that fact that the special Chinese meals being delivered to them by a local caterer were not warm enough. "Many poor and working Canadians cannot afford to eat the salmon and calamari being served these illegals," Paul Fromm told a Victoria audience. "From people who were supposedly subsisting on rice and foul water just two weeks ago, this ingratitude to the hard-pressed Canadian taxpayer is outrageous."

An interview with Victoria restauranteur Henry Cho proved most illuminating. Cho owns and manages Ming's Restaurant. Opened in 1949, Ming's is Victoria's premier Chinese eatery and does a brisk take-out business as well.

Cho, who has owned the restaurant since 1972, explained that soon after the illegals landed, he received a call from Immigration Canada asking how much notice he would require to provide 150 meals. He said 48 hours. The next day, he received a call at 7:00 a.m. asking whether he could provide 144 meals by 1:00 p.m. He did.

"I had a contract to provide three meals a day for 144 people for 14 days," Cho explains. He is adamant about the numbers, even though officially the public was told there were only 123 illegals aboard the ship.

"At first," he reports, "I was asked to serve mostly vegetables and rice, with not too much meat," as no one knew what they had in their systems. "I was in touch with Immigration" and with the detainees, he says. "I had information on their requests and tried my best to comply."

Cho said the illegals "complained that the food was not hot enough." This is a complaint that the experienced caterer hotly denies. "I used tin foil containers and they can keep the food hot for almost an hour," he said. "Then, they told me not to use the tin foil since they [the illegals] were using it for some kind of purpose." Reports had the illegals using the tin foil and other objects as weapons which they hid.

Cho then switched to Styrofoam containers. "I found it still kept the food quite hot." However, when the weapon-making material was no longer used, the illegals staged their brief hunger strike.

"Immigration said they liked the food and had confidence in what I was serving." Cho says: "I had a couple of requests that they'd like to have fish as they came from the coastal region of Fujian. So, I gave it to them."

Cho is cagey about the cost of feeding the illegals. He says he provided meals from his menu. "I gave them a little discount from the going rate." Cho's takeout menu shows dinners in the $10.00 range, before taxes. Thus, a ballpark figure for feeding the illegal ingrates would be about $60,000!

Ming's Restaurant has won the "Best Chinese Menu" award for the last five years, from 1995 to 1999 given by the Victoria News. Speaking of the complaining illegals now turned cuisine critics, a confident Henry Cho says: "If they don't like it, it won't bother me at all."