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Feds blamed for immigrants

Dear Editor:

A recent advertisement: by a
group of citizens provided a
coupon to protest government ref-
ugee policy. ] sent mine to my MP,
Mary Collins.

Now I have a ‘‘package’’ that
tells me ‘‘the government has
followed the current laws to the
letter and the problem lies not in
the way the Immigration Act is en-
forced, but rather in the Act
itself.’’ This statement is simply
not consistent with the facts.

The present laws would work if
the personnel required were pro-
vided. The key stage in the pracess
is the Examination-Under-Oath
where the claimant has an oppor-
tunity to establish his claim. That
tcanscript is considered by the

Cove
rezoning
opposed

OPEN LETTER TO WEST
VANCOUVER COUNCIL

I wish to express my strongest
objection to the proposed rezoning
at Fisherman’s Cove by Interna-
tional Land Corp. for the follow-
ing reasons:

* Change in the community plan
should only take place if:

a) the local residents agree to it
b) a change benefits the majority
and not just the few.

If this zoning is approved the
community plan will be completely
useless as a reference to what
future uses an area will be put to,
bringing into disrepute the whole
planning process.

¢ West Vancouver has an enor-
mous area of land for residential
and multi-family use, but very lit-
tle for marine use. The municipali-
ty is correctly protecting the free
access to the foreshore and I do
not agree that this whole policy be
reversed for the benefit of one
developer at the expense of the
whole community.

e International Land has allow-
ed this marine facility to decline in
the hope that they can bargain and
upgrade these facilities in exchange
for this rezoning. If, however, In-
ternational Land believed that they
would never obtain a rezone to res-
idential they would, as good en-
trepreneurs, upgrade the facilities
to obtain the greatest return they
could from their investment in-
stead of allowing it to go to waste.

e Finally, I believe i: open,
honest government at whatever
level. I attended the meeting at
Gleneagles prior to the last election
and I heard each one of you give a
commitment to the ass:mbled elec-
torate that these marine facilities
would never be rezoned to residen-
tial.

Victor G.S. Durman
West Vancouver

Write us!

LETTERS TO the Editor must in-
clude the writer’s name, written
legibly. Names may be withheld
from publication in special cases.
While the News does not publish
street addresses and telephone
numbers, they must be included
for verification purposes. Letters
may be edited for brevity, clarity,
legality or taste.

Refugee Status Advisory Commit-
tee in Ottawa. Only one per cent of
those rejected by this competent
group succeed in appeals to the
Immigration Appeal Board.

In March 1986 the backlog of
claims was 21,742. Only 4,099
were examined that year. This was
1,022 less than the year previous
because staff were reassigned to
other work,

The government did not follow
the law. It scuttled the system. Jt
then did two things of which Mrs.
Collins is aware.

By mid-1986 the backlog was
25,000. Government figures show
less than 10 per cent would be ge-
nuine refugees. The government
established special soft, lax admis-
sions criteria applicable only to

refugee claimants and designed to
accept 85 per cent of them. About
18,000 bogus refugees were landed.
During 1986, 2,695 claimants re-
jected by that competent advisory
committee had applied to the !m-
migration Appeal Board. The gov-
ernment removed them from that
workload, then had the soft ad-
missions criteria applied to them
and about 85 per cent were landed.
These two acts sent signals to the
disadvantaged of the world that
Canada’s back door was open
wider than ever. They are arriving
at 2,000 a month. This is happen-
ing because of government failure
to ‘follow the current laws to the
fetter.’’
Charles Campbell
West Vancouver

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7 - Friday, November 6, 1987 - North Shore News

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