THE LETTER ‘R’ stands for
Refugee. Also for Ridiculous,
and the two are synonymous
as far as our Canadian immi-
gration mess is concerned.

Three former top-ranking mem-
bers of the Immigration and Refugee
Board (IRB), two of whom resigned,
have expressed their disgust at what
is going on, But the “system” floats
along regardless.

ILis the Dreadnought of Canadian
politics. Nothing can sink it and
nothing will sink it until the Liberals
are tossed out and the Reform party
takes over.

Foreign crooks and violent crimi-
nals laugh in our faces.

An Iranian who had been in and
out of courts since his arrival in these
parts in 1988 is ordered deported but
is granted a second refugee hearing.

A piece of scum from Laos who
beat a young white half to death with
"a baseball bat in Abbotsford and

stood by while his friend shot the
“victim dead was granted refugee sta-
tus.

He laughs at the TV cameras.
while on his way in to a deportation
appeal.

. Over the years there have been
hundreds of similar cases.

But the only result has been that
the Liberals have stacked the IRB
‘- With members of the refugee indus-

.. -, William Bauer, one of the two
‘who quit the IRB, said he had been
-under pressure to admit us many
applicants as possible. And the sys-
“tem made it possible for terrorists
‘and criminals to acquire refugee sta-
_ tus. He said he “couldn’t stomach it
any longer.”
. That's old news. Buta couple of
years ago this sort of thing would
- never have been discussed in Ottawa

"because we had no immigration crit-

“ics in Parliament. —
: The NDP never did produce a
“:, genuine critic. What they produced
. “was immigration boosters. Like the
_ NDP's Dan Heap and the Liberals’
Sergio Marchi, the. present immigra-~
tion minister.
Now that has changed, thanks to
“the Reform party and especially to
Art Hanger. -
Some weeks ago he drew up a

: 24-page critique of the nonsense that -

"passes as our refugee program. It did
” receive some notice in the media, but
not much. So I asked for the whole

thing.

-" . Finance Minister Eric: Martin
- should read it. It would show him
how to save a lot of money.

_. Hanger says the IRB should be
‘scrapped (hear hear!). It costs $80

: million a year and has 235 board

“|, members whose salaries are in the
$85,000 range.

., Former IRB man Padraig

O'Donoghue, QC, who was dropped,

* fired, or what-have-you from the IRB
stated he doubted Whether he ever
came across a single genuine

lation

MH other hand

refugee.

Hanger shows just how ludicrous
the system is. Applicants must not be
questioned in an adversarial manner.
They don’t have to prove they are

refugees, aud the IRB has no means -

i

of proving they are not.

Why do we bother with hearings
at all?

“The refugee determination sys-
tem is constructed in such a manner
as to make the rejection of a bogus
claim impossible,” declared the
Reformer.

He thinks the IRB should be
replaced by immigration officials.
And we should in any case take no
more than 10% of a total immigra-
tion intake of 150,000 a year. (It has

been 250,000, and is still running at -

over 200,000.)
We should also apply the “safe
country” rule. When those phoney

Sikh and Tamil refugees landed on

y

the East Coast in 1987 from
Germany and Belgians die country
was scandalized,

‘The ‘Tories wrote legislation
aHowing Ottawa to send such people
back to the “sale countries” they
came from but the aie was never
proclaimed, Se they continue to
come in. And out again,

“Travel by refugees back to their
country of origin shortly after they
have claimed refugee status makes a
mockery of the system,” stated
Hanger.

So do the goodies we give them,

“To extend welfare and other ben-
ctits to refugee claimants,” he goes
on, “sends a message world-wide
that Canada is willing to fully subsi-
dize the cost of living for. shose who
desire to give the refugee system a

‘shot’. ”

Canada operates | under the fiction
that there are no second “safe coun-
tries.” he says. By which he means
that phoneys can flood into Canada
from Europe. /

“In 1993 over 7,500 refugee
claimants travelled through the U.S.
alone in order to make refugee
claims in Canada. This despite the

fact that the U.S. is a refugee-accept- -
ing nation.

“We accept about 70% of appli-

_-Cants, but the average ucceptance
rates of the industrialized countries is

about 14%, :
“Clearly, the definition of
‘refugee’ has undergone a radical
expansion in Canada.”
Radical and ridiculous.

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