Toronto police urged to stop immigration 'status checks'

Despite “Sanctuary City” status, Toronto Police made almost 3,300 calls to border officials in eight months — and 83.4 per cent were “status checks,” says a new study.

RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR Order this photo

Supporters of a sanctuary-city motion raise their arms in victory as the vote is announced in a city hall debate in 2013 in Toronto.

By: Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter, Published on Tue Nov 24 2015

Toronto police regularly initiate contacts with Canadian border officials to check on people’s immigration status in violation of Toronto Council’s Sanctuary City policy, a new study claims.

During an eight-month period between last November and June this year, the Toronto Police Service made 3,278 calls to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), 83.4 per cent of the calls were for “status checks,” said the study, titled Often Asking, Always Telling, to be released Wednesday.

“The broad criterion of ‘officer suspicion’ is fertile ground for the practice of racial profiling. This is not a matter of a few exceptional circumstances of certain individual officers, but instead a systemic problem in policy,” said the study led by University of Ottawa criminology professor David Moffette.

“Given the frequency of the deeply embedded practice of racial profiling and its link to the numerous calls made . . . we must conclude that the TPS are not by any means an accessible service to black and racialized groups with precarious or no status in Toronto.”

In June 2014, Toronto Council passed recommendations to give the city’s estimated 200,000 non-status residents access to city services without fear of being turned over to border enforcement officials.

The study said the practice by the TPS contradicts the directive; it asks the city to urge TPS to develop a comprehensive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and stop checking a resident’s immigration status during interactions or disclosing that information to their federal immigration counterparts.

TPS spokesperson Mark Pugash said the force has adopted the “don’t ask” policy, but the law has obliged officers to inform border enforcement if they become aware of an immigrant warrant against an individual in the course of their interaction.

“The conclusion (the researchers) reached mystified me. The report is long on insults and accusations but short on evidence-based conclusions,” said Pugash, who has directed staff to look into the study’s data.

According to the 48-page report, based on data obtained under an access to information request to the border agency, CBSA received 10,700 calls from all Canadian law enforcement and transit agencies during the eight months — including 4,392 from Greater Toronto police authorities.

With 3,278 calls, the TPS made more requests to CBSA’s Warrant Response System — which allows law-enforcement authorities to inquire if a person of interest faces any outstanding immigration warrants — than the RCMP (1,197) and the combined total from police services in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Overall, 72 per cent of the calls were listed for “status checks,” with the rest under warrant inquiry and previously-deported-person inquiry, as well as photo and fingerprints requests.

“This shows the consistent practice of ‘asking,’ that is, inquiring about the immigration status on an individual even when no immigration warrant appears on the CPIC (Canadian police central data base),” said the study, prepared for No One Is Illegal, a grassroots advocacy group for migrants.

On Wednesday, a council committee is scheduled to get an update from city staff on undocumented residents’ access to municipal services and to hear the study’s recommendations.

The Source:http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2015/11/24/toronto-police-urged-to-stop-immigration-status-checks.html

Comment:

Just how stupid are we?

It is understandable that Canadians expect proper vetting for the 25,000 Syrian refugees. Most Canadians want to know who is living next door. This is reasonable.

Now have a look at the attached article from today’s Toronto Star.

• There are an estimated 200,000 illegal workers in the City of Toronto. This does not include Mississauga, Pickering, Oakville Hamilton, York Region and the rest of the GTA. 300,000 is a reasonable number for Ontario

• Toronto and Hamilton, without provincial sanction, have both decided to become vigilantes. They are committing a crime by openly declaring themselves to be “sanctuary cities”. Our cities have gone rogue by showing the finger to Ottawa. Ottawa has gone rouge by refusing to even identify the 300,000. If you or I tried to emulate our governments, we would be behind bars

• Toronto police are being accused of trying to identify, but not even vet,  the  1 %  of illegal workers who come into direct contact with police

So, on the one hand we have a high profile, national interest, orderly queue of 25,000 fully vetted Syrians soon to be spread over the county.

On the other hand we have over 110 times more unvetted illegals on the GTA’s buses every day.

Unlike Syrian refugees in UN camps, the GTHA’s illegal are not even identified.

Unlike Syrian refugees in UN camps, Ottawa refuses to vet skilled trades workers who are standing legally in the FSTP landed immigrant queue.

In summary, Ottawa:

•  Refuses to identify 300,000 illegals.

• Refuses to vet those skilled trades workers who want to stand in the queue

• Ignores the existence of the skilled trades worker queue.

I’m not making this up.

Ottawa is in Federal Court fighting our attempt to get some of our trades clients vetted.

Ottawa is pushing our trades workers out of the queue in the hope that that they will be deported because they fell out line.

The Federal Court has ordered that Ottawa is acting in bad faith by refusing to vet the workers who are patiently standing in the Federal Skilled Trades Worker Program queue.

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa to get ready to pay the unvetted workers their damages for waiting in line while Ottawa refuses to vet.

Rather than simply vet successfully established trades workers, Ottawa has decided to spend tax dollars allowing the workers to sit on Italian and Portuguese beaches in lieu of standing in the FSTP queue.

Since no one can believe that we as a society can be so stupid, the obvious question is to look for any possible explanation or excuse.  

Here it is: Most of the 300,000 unvetted folks are European. Most have family in the GTA.

It’s all about greed trumping fear.

We are conditioned to fear Muslims. Witness Jason Kenney’s performance.

Canadians are not threated by Europeans. Especially those European skilled trades persons whose skills can be exploited. 

Most, if not every, family in the GTA has a family member, a colleague, an employee, a customer, a contractor or neighbor who is European, skilled, illegal and unvetted. 

An orderly, vetted queue of skilled Europeans could mean higher construction, food service and mechanic costs.

The solution to possible higher costs is to squeeze our illegal neighbors and cousins. The key to squeezing is to keep them illegal. The key to keeping them illegal is to find any excuse, such as language, to force them out of any immigration queue.       

Thus, the answer to the question is:

We are not stupid… just conveniently mean, smug and self-serving.

The problem with exploitation and greed is that they provide only immediate gratification.

At the end of the day, the 300,000 will leave Canada and the 25,000 will quickly become 300,000. Which, given our proven inability to do the right thing, may not be such a bad thing.

 Exploitation and greed…what goes around, comes around.    "

Richard Boraks, November 24 2015