So they finally figured out the puzzle !
OTTAWA — The federal government intends to revoke the citizenship of at least 1,800 people who allegedly used fraudulent means to become Canadians.
According to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, most of the targeted individuals were counselled by crooked immigration consultants on how to concoct fake proof of residency in Canada.
To become a citizen, a person is supposed to have lived in Canada for three out of four years.
"Sadly, there is an industry of what we call unscrupulous agents operating around the world who sell advice on how to take advantage of Canada to break our laws," Kenny said in the text of a speech delivered Monday to the Economic Club of Toronto.
"And there are some people -- thankfully, I think a small minority -- who are prepared to pay big money in order to falsely obtain Canadian citizenship."
Among other things, he said scamming the citizenship system is appealing to foreigners who don't want to live here but want to take advantage of Canada's free health care, subsidized university tuition fees and the security of the Canadian passport.
Following an extensive, two-year investigation by his department, the RCMP and other police services, Kenney said the government has identified at least 1,800 people who fraudulently obtained citizenship.
The government is now in the process of notifying those individuals of its intention to revoke their citizenship.
"I'm here to tell those people that Canadian citizenship is not for sale," Kenney declared.
Up to now, Canada has successfully revoked citizenship status -- usually an arduous process involving lengthy court appeals -- from only 66 people.
But Kenney suggested most of the 1,800 won't contest revocation since the evidence of fraud is strong and most don't live in the country in any event.
Joshua Sohn, vice-chair of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section, welcomed the crackdown but expressed some concern about the scale of the operation.
"I think it's a good thing that the government is signalling that it's going to take this seriously," Sohn said in an interview.
"It's a question of balancing that with some pragmatism as well."
Sohn noted that even the most straight-forward citizenship application takes about a year to process. And he expressed concern that the backlog might get worse if the government shifts resources to focus on mass revocation of fraudulently obtained citizenships.
"The 1,800 at once ... I do think that just raises pragmatic issues and whether resources are going to be tied up in that that are going to further delay citizenship processing."
While the government goes after those who've fraudulently obtained citizenship, Sohn said it remains difficult to crack down on the "ghost consultants" who provided the advice on how to break the law in the first place.
"It's not on the radar in terms of who's doing it and how many there are. That's the big problem with it."
