Dear Editor: Powrite to veice my disappointment ar the peor coverage (one photo with a short caption} ofa recent evens honouring one of our commu- nity’s local heroes, Don Jabour. It seems that while you can often tind room for stories and/or cleavage photos that hold lit- tle or no interest for the awerage North Shore reader, vou chose to pass on an opportunity to focus on aman whe spent his career and his lite making a positive difference in the lives of many peaple. Through his family legal practice Don Jabour worked at helpiag peeple one on one to sort out their legal difficulties and get their lives back on track; he made an effort to improve his commnu- nity when he went to bat for advertising to bring legal fees out of the closet; and he sought to bring a little laughter into people's lives with his funny and touching portrayals on. stage of such characters as Papa in the Fiddler on the Roof and Fagan in Ohtver! “Lastly, and foremost, he was a family man, and dearly loved and was tremendously proud of his wife, children and grandchildren. The retirement party given, by fiends and colleagues in his honour was 2 virtual who's who Wednesday. October 7, 1998 - North Shore News - 9 north shore news MAIL BOX Lawyer Jabour lauded in the legal protession of this province but, more than that, it was a unique cross section of the people who's lives Don had touched and indud- ed family, thiends, actors, lawyers, singers, scere- tars, and this: partime photographer and homemaker, not ro mention Brean and his wite, who had our table in stitches with their fish sto ries. [later learned that this was the Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. there to honour and support bis dear friend. The combined strength of this diverse gath ering Was a testament to Don's character. We were all gathered together to celebrate the thing that we had in common: a deep respect: and aficetion tor Don Jabour. Family man; trend; actor and singer; col league: local hero. And if the measure of one’s wealth can be determined by the qualin: and commitment of one’s family and. friends, then Don Jabour, who passed away on Tuesday morn- ing, (Sept. 29), was indeed a very wealthy man. ‘Too bad vour paper decided not to cover it, because a story covering this man, his lite, and his legacy — now that’s something I would like to read about. Jan Currie North Vancouver Upgrade won't block port traffic Dear Editor: Re: Timothy Renshaw’s Sept. 13 Ripping Yarns. It’s important for your readers to understand that the Port of Vancouver's operations and services will not be critical- ly affected by the Lions Gate upgrade. The Vancouver Port Corp., along with the Canadian Coast Guard, Vessel Traffic Services, Navigable Waters Protection Authority and industry repre- sentatives have had ongoing meetings with the B.C. Transportation Financing Authority (BCTFA) to ensure that issues reiative to the upgrade are fully addressed so that the impacts of the refit project to port operations are minimal and acceptable. Moreover, we have a writ- ten commitment from the BCTFA that at no time will the First Narrows be com- pletely closed to deep sea traf fic. We are confident that all of those involved with the upgrade understand — and acknowledge the port’s signiti- cant. economic contributions to our city, province and west- ern Canada and that any inter- ruption in) our operations would not be permitted. Gordon Houston Vice Iresident, Operations Vancouver Port Corporation Agency, the Pacific Pilotage Brighten your child’s eyes with quality educational toys. Helen O’Grady Children’s Drama Academy comes to Vancouver Nineteen years ago, after a very successful career as a teacher, actress and TV presenter Helen O'Grady opened the Helen O'Grady Children’s Drama Academy in Australia. Today, classes are held in hundred of locations throughout Australia, New Zealand, Britain, South Africa, Malaysia and Singapore. Helen is proud to bring the wonderful benclits of her highly successful programme to Vancouver. The aim of the Academy is to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and skill in verbal communication through a unique programme in drama, speech and movement. Children find our classes highly motivating and parents everywhere are delighted with the results! Classes are now enrolling in: West Vancouver Lyan Valley Capilano Seymour Phone Principal Jo-Ann Pawliw at Helen 929-9709 O'Grady CHILDREN’ $ DRAMA ACADEMY thrsugh cdramal” w ‘Dewelopoer com.au MAILBOX POLICY: Letters to the editor must be legible (preferably rypew ritten) and include vour name, full address and telephone number. Submissions can be fived to 985.2 HH. ted white, m.p. advertoriat, October 7/1998 PASSPORT SCAMS Ascording to Staff Sergeant Rocky Rockwell of the RCMP’s BC Immigration and Passport Unit, passport fraud is not taken nearly seriously cneuah by the Federal Government, or the court system. He has been quoted as saying that ‘The public thinks drugs are a big problem. They should see what’s going on in the citizenship and immigration rackets.” Sergeant Rockwell, in my opinion, has good reason to be frustrated. My personal discussions with enforcement officers at our local border entry points have led me to believe that there is an epidemic of passport forgery underway in the Greater Vancouver area. Unfortunately, my comments in the House of Commons about the situation have beer: met with indifference from the Liberal Government, and the sentences for passport forgery dispensed by our local courts appear to have reflected a similar lack of concern. Is Canadian citizenship of such little value that it is not worth defending? A TYPICAL SCAM Here is a description of a typical passport forgery scam similar to one which operated recently in North Vancouver: 1) A genuine ianded immigrant, upon qualifying for Canadian citizenship and receiving a Canadian passport, sells his/her home country passport to a forger for a few thousand dollars. He or she then advertises in the newspaper that the passport has been lost. 2) The forger sends the passport, complete with its valid Canadian Landed Immigrant Permit, back to a contact in the country of origin, where the photograph in the passport is replaced with that of a “client” wishing to enter Canada illegally. 3) The “client” then travels to Canada using the name shown if the passport. Entry to Canada is usually easy because the passport contains a valid Canadian Landed Immigrant Permit, as well as the photograph of the traveller 4) Upon successful entry, the “client” resells the passport to the Canadian forger in order to recover some of the vost, and reports to an Immigration Office to claim refugee status. At this point, the Canadian taxpayer supplies money, lodgings and legal assistance to assist the “refugee” during processing of the claim. 5) The forger, meanwhile, sends the passport back to the country of origin again so that a different photograph can be inserted ready for use by a new “client”. The RCMP have told me that, on average, a passport could be recycled this way at least ten times before it becomes damaged enough to be intercepted at the border entry point. 6) Upon finally being intercepted, the faise passport is tracked back to the original owner who then states that the passport was lost and advertised as such. Acopy of the newspaper advertisement is produced as proof, making it difficult for police to lay charges or put an end to the scam. COUNTRYWIDE The problem of bogus passports and Canadian citizenship cards is not restricted to Vancouver. Here are some examples from across Canada: * Last Fall, during an investigation related to drugs found in cooking pots from Thailand, RCMP in Ottawa seized 25 blank Canadian passports. * In Halifax in March of this year, RCMP charged a Nigerian expatriate with numerous charges related to talse passports. * Early in April, police received a tip that up to 1£,000 false Canadian citizenship cards were being transported from Montreal to Toronto by a Sri Lankan expatriate who had come to Canada as a refugee claimant. A search of the man's apartment found 4 passports as well as additional citizenship cards and Bangladesh birth certificates. (The arrested man is said to have paid just $14,000 for the shipment of citizenship cards. The markeiplace, it seems, has established the value ef Canadian citizenship at a level somewhat less than one US dollar.} * Police in Newmarket, Ontario that same month charged 2 Bulgarian expatriates, one under a deportation order, with a number of charges related to forged passports and credit cards. * Also in April, a Bulgarian expatriate was charged in Winnipeg with possessicn of counterfeit Canadian citizenship cards. * in May, two West African nationals were charged after apparently using phony Canadian citizenship documents as part of a scheme to defraud businesses in Canada of about $23 mitlion. * In a related investigation, a Nigerian was charged in Toronto with dozens of counts involving immigration documents, citizenship cards, social insurance cards, drivers’ licenses, and false passports. * Across Canada iast year police opened around 922 files related to the smuggling of people into Canada, and made seizures associated with 597 attempts by persons to enter or stay in Canada illegally. WHAT CAN WE DO? | There is no doubt, according to a 10 year veteran of the immigration section of the RCMP in the Toronto area, that this type of crime is increasing and serious. Some law enforcement people in BC even feel that citizenship related crime is now So prevalent amongst identifiable sectors of the community that the public have become blasé about the whole issue. As a result, much of the fraud goes unreported and is never investigated. If you feel as violated by these crimes as ! do, there are a few things you can do. Firstly, please repost any information you have about passport or citizenship related crime to the Passport/Immigration section of the RCMP in Surrey at 543-4800. Secondly, in the most civil of language you can manage, please write to our do-nothing Minister of Immigration, Hon Lucienne Robillard, to demand that she begin treating this problem as a serious matter. Thirdly, refuse to accept a “brush off” type of response from: the Minister assuring you that the first priority of her department is maintaining security of our borders. Keep writing back to her untif she tells you exactly what she is doing about the problem. Her address is The House of Commons, Ottawa, Gntzrio, K1A OA6. No stamp is required. .. ed: White, M.P. , #302-1200 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver, B.C. V7J 2A2 Co + Tel: 666-0585 Fax: 666-0509, Internet: htep://www.reform.ca/white-t/ ; .