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Feds to crack down on crooked immigration consultants
By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau
Last Updated: June 8, 2010 5:48pm
OTTAWA — Crooked immigration consultants beware. The feds are gunning for you.Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calls people who take money for immigration services without being bona fide consultants "bottom feeders" and soon they will face up to a two-year jail sentence, a $50,000 fine or both if the government gets its way.
Kenney introduced the Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act Tuesday, which also calls for a new regulatory watchdog instead of the six-year-old Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, which is mired in controversy and has lost the public's confidence, Kenney said.
"While most immigration consultants working in Canada are legitimate and ethical, it is clear that immigration fraud remains a widespread threat to the integrity of Canada's immigration system," Kenney said. "Crooked immigration consultants victimize people who dream of immigrating to Canada."
They encourage prospective immigrants to lie on the applications, concoct bogus refugee stories and enter into "sham marriages" with Canadian citizens, which Kenney said "undermines the integrity and fairness of Canada's immigration system."
The government estimates there are thousands of people in Canada who have been swindled — sometime upwards of $90,000 — by crooked consultants offering to help with immigration applications but give nothing in return.
According to Phil Mooney, the past president of the Canadian Association of Immigration Consultant Professionals, making unregistered immigration consulting a crime and putting in place a proper regulatory agency instead of the CSIC is a welcome move.
"We're delighted because proper immigration consultants are victims of the crooked ones too. They steal our clients with lies and false promises and they give the whole industry a bad name," he said. "We've been very unhappy with the way we've been regulated. Our members complain bitterly (about CSIC)."
But the society, which will be able to apply in the government's public bid to be the industry's regulator, said recently the problem is unscrupulous “ghost consultants," not the Society itself.
“Despite what other groups seem to think, CSIC is not the problem. Unaccredited ghost agents are the problem, and all this rhetoric only serves to distract media, decision-makers and the public from this critical issue," stated Nigel Thomson, the Society's chairman, in a recent news release.
NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow praised the government bill but said it was too long in coming.
And she warned tough legislation alone won't stop fraudsters from preying on desperate people trying to move to Canada. There is also a need to enforce the new rules and educate immigrants about the risks of fraudsters.
"Without the education part, people don't know how to protect themselves. Without enforcement, the legislation and regulations won't work," she said. "We need all three pieces."
bryn.weese@sunmedia.ca
By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau
Last Updated: June 8, 2010 5:48pm
OTTAWA — Crooked immigration consultants beware. The feds are gunning for you.Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calls people who take money for immigration services without being bona fide consultants "bottom feeders" and soon they will face up to a two-year jail sentence, a $50,000 fine or both if the government gets its way.
Kenney introduced the Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act Tuesday, which also calls for a new regulatory watchdog instead of the six-year-old Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, which is mired in controversy and has lost the public's confidence, Kenney said.
"While most immigration consultants working in Canada are legitimate and ethical, it is clear that immigration fraud remains a widespread threat to the integrity of Canada's immigration system," Kenney said. "Crooked immigration consultants victimize people who dream of immigrating to Canada."
They encourage prospective immigrants to lie on the applications, concoct bogus refugee stories and enter into "sham marriages" with Canadian citizens, which Kenney said "undermines the integrity and fairness of Canada's immigration system."
The government estimates there are thousands of people in Canada who have been swindled — sometime upwards of $90,000 — by crooked consultants offering to help with immigration applications but give nothing in return.
According to Phil Mooney, the past president of the Canadian Association of Immigration Consultant Professionals, making unregistered immigration consulting a crime and putting in place a proper regulatory agency instead of the CSIC is a welcome move.
"We're delighted because proper immigration consultants are victims of the crooked ones too. They steal our clients with lies and false promises and they give the whole industry a bad name," he said. "We've been very unhappy with the way we've been regulated. Our members complain bitterly (about CSIC)."
But the society, which will be able to apply in the government's public bid to be the industry's regulator, said recently the problem is unscrupulous “ghost consultants," not the Society itself.
“Despite what other groups seem to think, CSIC is not the problem. Unaccredited ghost agents are the problem, and all this rhetoric only serves to distract media, decision-makers and the public from this critical issue," stated Nigel Thomson, the Society's chairman, in a recent news release.
NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow praised the government bill but said it was too long in coming.
And she warned tough legislation alone won't stop fraudsters from preying on desperate people trying to move to Canada. There is also a need to enforce the new rules and educate immigrants about the risks of fraudsters.
"Without the education part, people don't know how to protect themselves. Without enforcement, the legislation and regulations won't work," she said. "We need all three pieces."
bryn.weese@sunmedia.ca
