Mr. Immigration Minister, It's Getting Heavy!
I wrote this letter in the spring of 2009. I never received a reply or letter of acknowledgement.
Attention: The Honorable Jason Kenney, PC MP
Citizenship and Immigration Canada Ottawa ON K1A 1L1
April 28, 2009
Dear Honorable Jason Kenney,
My name is Lainie Towell and I wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to appear on CTV’s Canada AM last week, to speak about immigration/marriage fraud.
In your Canada AM interview, you said that my personal story is far from uncommon and that it, (marriages of convenience), is one of the most frequent forms of immigration fraud. In order to deal with this frequent form of immigration fraud, you explained that: “Canada employs skilled migration integrity officers to try to root out would-be fraudsters before they can get their foot in the door.”
Prevention is not working. If it were, marriage/immigration fraud would not be so frequent in Canada. It is unacceptable that marriage fraud is so common, and yet these so-called special preventative measures are not even happening on a consistent basis. For example,in my case, the Canadian government never interviewed me as a sponsor, or my ex husband, at any point in the application process. In my case, the skilled integrity officers never could have “rooted out” the lies that only became apparent to me, after my ex husband landed in Canada.
Minister Kenney, if prevention is the only measure in place to reduce the risk of fraud, should interviews with skilled migration integrity officers at Canadian embassies not then be mandatory for all spousal immigration applications?
I decided to call Citizenship and Immigration Canada to ask why there were never any interviews in my sponsorship application process. The call centre agent I spoke with told me that family class marriage applications are the quickest and least stringent ones to process. She explained that if applications appear authentic, officers often issue visas without any further questions. Minister Kenney, this is alarming if as you say, marriages of convenience are one of the most common forms of immigration fraud. How can the government claim that they have special preventative measures to combat this type of immigration fraud, yet in many cases, spousal immigration applications are processed so quickly? (My ex husband’s took eight weeks). The Canadian government needs to do better. I agree that Canadians need to be vigilant when marrying abroad. However, we are talking about love, and when you love someone and believe they love you, it’s hard to fathom that you are being conned. In most cases it only becomes apparent once the fraudster has obtained permanent residency status in Canada.
Currently, Canada’s spousal sponsorship agreement is set up as it is in order to ensure the rights of new immigrants, should their sponsors desert their responsibilities. However, there is no clause in the act to protect the rights of sponsors, if they are abandoned, victimized, abused, or defrauded. By ignoring the rights of Canadian sponsors in the aforementioned circumstances, the current policy is one-sided and unfair. The system is set up so that the rights of the sponsored immigrant automatically have precedent over the rights of the Canadian sponsor – even when they have been abused.
A balance needs to be found to encompass the rights of new immigrants, and the rights of their sponsors. Citizenship and Immigration states on their website that “everyone is responsible for ensuring that their marriage is genuine.” However, as policy stands now only one party in the marriage partnership is being held responsible – the sponsor. Sponsors who marry in good faith but who then realize they have been defrauded should not be held accountable when they suddenly learn that their relationship was not genuine. This is no different then holding a home owner accountable for having had their house broken into after they lock their doors, buy insurance, and install a security alarm.
Finally, on March 24, 2009, my ex husband was issued a removal order at his admissibility hearing for misrepresentation – a decision that he now has the right to appeal. Minister Kenney, can you explain why I am still my ex husband’s sponsor during this appeal process, after it has been proven that he lied to me to and the government to gain entry into Canada? Why is the government still holding me responsible for him? My sponsorship obligations should no longer apply because my ex husband misrepresented himself to gain permanent resident status. Would you not agree?
I look forward to hearing your views on the issues I have raised. I also hope that my ex husband’s appeal process does not drag on. Lengthy hearing and appeal wait times cost Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars in support payments, legal aid costs, and health care, while illegal immigrants remain in Canada.
Sincerely,
Lainie Towell
Ottawa Ontario, Canada