Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the committee for the opportunity to appear and provide some context.
Based on my close to 30 years of practice in the area of immigration, I presented a submission to the committee with a summary of some of the salient points in my remarks, and also significant case law and press clippings that I hope you have in your possession.
I heard the last 10 minutes of the testimony of the panel in the previous hour, and specifically that of my colleague and friend Chantal Desloges, and I very much agree with many of the points she made. However, I'd like to pick up on one of the questions that came from one of the committee members concerning relationships of convenience.
In my 30 years of practice, I have found that a lot of relationships of convenience are a significant problem in the context of spousal immigration. This happens for a variety of reasons, but there is one thing of which there can be no doubt. The financial and personal costs to Canadians or permanent residents who have been duped into entering into relationships of convenience are staggering. Unfortunately, there are very few avenues of redress.
Relationships of convenience happen for a variety of reasons, but specifically Canadians are being targeted overseas, particularly in places such as Cuba—there's significant press reporting on the issue—and also the Dominican Republic, etc. Canadians become a very valuable avenue to escape poverty or undesirable conditions.
That also happens in the context of the Middle East, for example. There is a case that I provided to the committee concerning a Middle Eastern country where people are being duped into entering specifically arranged marriages when the other spouse has absolutely no intention of consummating their relationship or living with the sponsor after entering Canada.
Also, two other examples are India and China. In the context of India, there was a significant problem with what was called “rent a wedding”, when unscrupulous individuals staged fake weddings, including photographs and costumes, etc., for people to apply for immigration.
Also, in the context of China, the RCMP and CBSA have investigated and have convicted numerous individuals responsible for orchestrating fake marriages in exchange for a significant payoff, sometimes ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 a piece. Recently, a woman was convicted who had amassed more than $2.5 million from a scheme like that.
It is a significant problem, and it has to be monitored. One of the things that other countries have done, for example Australia, is instituted a reporting system, and if you have been hearing from other witnesses that the Canadian system somehow imposes onerous requirements on people being sponsored, then all you need to do is turn to the Australian and the U.K. model to see how generous Canada really is. Those countries impose reporting requirements with very few exceptions for violators or for people whose marriage breaks down to continue to remain in those countries.
Canada is also more generous than the United States. In the United States, for example, the priority for sponsorship falls on citizens and not residents, although resident green-card holders can still sponsor, but those become priority immigrants and they can wait for years until they come into the United States, so citizens are given priority. That's another thing that Canada does perhaps more generously.
Also you need to consider the imposition of some sort of reporting system where this conditional requirement is actually being enforced, because right now it may take years for a relationship of convenience or a fraudulent marriage to be discovered.
I can tell you that I receive calls in my office on a very regular basis from people who have been duped into marriage in different countries. There is no particular group that is immune to this. Those individuals are suffering enormous financial hardship. The problem is that they have no assistance from CBSA because, frankly, there is absolutely no budget to enforce this particular legislation, or to investigate fraudulent marriage cases. It's very difficult. Then they turn to the courts.
For example, there is the case I provided to you in my material, the Zaghbib case. This poor fellow turned to the courts and he, unfortunately, could have no remedy in the courts. There is the case of Raju v. Kumar that I also provided to you, in which this lady who was originally from Fiji and became a Canadian citizen was duped by somebody who only wanted to come to Canada, gain permanent residence, then divorce her and turn around and sponsor his girlfriend from back in Fiji, while the Canadian woman spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on the wedding and all the other sponsorship applications.
