From Bingo to Pay for Play

I’ve finally figured out one of modern civilization’s great mysteries:

Why, since 1993, has the Indian sub-continent and adjoining areas always managed to corral such a lion’s share of Canadian permanent residency visas?

Immigration programs come and go. But, no matter the program, the Indian sub-continent region consistently out scores European by significant margins.

The lop sided numbers have persisted for two decades. This despite:

• The data based demand by Canadian Europeans for their relatives and workers far outweighing the needs of the South Asian communities. The visas go to the subcontinent. The illegal worker status  goes to Europeans

• The European demand for Canadian visas has persisted for the past two decades  

• Most immigrants from Asia do not bother staying in Canada. Ottawa is scared to disclose how many Canadian passports and potential claims on Canada’s social safety network are floating around Asia. Over 1 million is the correct number.

What happened in June 1993 was that Mike Malloy, an Ottawa Immigration official, came down to Glendon College and told the ,overwhelmingly Christian, assembled churches and NGO’s  ,that   “immigration bingo was over”. Mike told us that community groups (many based in church basements and thus the reference to bingo) would no longer have a say in immigration quotas.

The doors were slammed shut on any form of European lobbying for visas.   

Mike explained the logic of Ottawa’s rush to get away from the European community visa lobbying:  Communism had fallen. The European Union was strong. Computer technology was becoming the rage. Bureaucrats were tired of bending immigration quotas to suit community groups, overwhelmingly, European, white and Christian. The new world order of Immigration was descending. Everything would be fair and transparent.

Hallelujah.

By 1993, the bureaucrats were spending money to establish computer systems ensuring that immigration selection would now be a meritocracy run by professionals. The bureaucrats were determined that never again would there  be community interference , largely led from Toronto. The new visa selection system would be colour blind. It would be free of political interference .It would be run by the new electronic selection system.

Hallelujah.

So what happened?

Jean Chrétien is what happened.

Later in 1993 Chretien became Prime Minister.

Chrétien had no intention of allowing Mike’s meritocracy to stand in the way of making some money.

Mike was sent off to Syria.

Chretien encouraged his Immigration Ministers, and his Members of Parliament to operate wholesale “pay for play” immigration consultancy businesses out of their government offices.

Pay to play became so notorious that the Speaker of the House of Commons actually initiated the “Jim Karygiannis rule” formalizing Members of Parliament taking money for immigration services. MP’s were/are actually charging money for making representations to the Immigration Minister on behalf of constituents/clients. (One day back in the 1990’s, I bumped into Jim, a Member of Parliament, in an elevator at the Canadian visa office in Athens. He was busy running his tax payer subsidized immigration practice. I had to pay my own overhead. The taxpayer paid Jim’s expenses. He simply kept the profit. I always thought it funny that he asked me what I was doing there.)

The Karygiannis rule opened the door to the “pay for play” culture which has led to Asian consultants pretty much dictating immigration quotas for over 20 years.

Ministers, Members of Parliament, consultants and Asian political groups have shared, and are sharing millions of dollars for peddling visas in the subcontinent.

The auctioning off of our visa quotas was accompanied by Ottawa creating a new unconscionable, mandatory administrative layer of global pre visa selection. Canada’s overseas visa applications are now vetted by a private company from Mumbai, India.

The Mumbai company controlling our visa vetting system is VFS. Their web site is: www.vfsglobal.ca

I never understood why Canadians cannot not operate the visa vetting system. There is no acceptable explanation justifying Ottawa compromising our security by sole sourcing a private sector call centre operation in Mumbai. Shame.

So, it is now 2016. In summary:

• The gatekeeper for Canadian  visas  is an entrepreneur from Mumbai

• Immigration quotas are established by MPs who take money from Asian consultants and Asian commercial and political groups

• The same groups, e.g. the Punjabis, who are big players in the visa quota game with MP’s are also serious players in assuring that MPs, mostly South Asians, control the nomination process.

• There are several Trudeau appointed Punjabi senators, 16 Punjabi MP’s and 4 senior Punjabi cabinet ministers. The Punjabi reps, disciplined by organizations such as the World Sikh Organization, assure the ongoing control of quotas. The perfect system. Ottawa assures the supply. Chandigarh assures the demand.  

• Italian and Portuguese MP’s will not engage in pay to play. Thus, their visa representations are ignored by Trudeau.

• There are no Trudeau appointed Italian, Portuguese or Greek senators or Cabinet ministers.

So, there we have it:

European Church Basement Bingo Replaced by Asian Pay for Play

No meritocracy…. No transparency

No public policy consideration in establishing immigration quotas

Meaningless, crashing computer systems

Foreign political and commercial interests financed by Canadian MP’s operating visa cash registers in their offices

European Canadians squeezed out of the picture

The criminal code hovering above the entire mess

Time for a return to the church basements.

Richard Boraks, November 23 2016