New figures show that the recent “crackdown” on fraud by Citizenship and Immigration Canada may not have been either as necessary, or as effective as first touted.
Since the crackdown was launched in July of 2011, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says that 19 citizenships had been revoked. However, the latest data shows that of those 19, only 12 revocations were related to evidence of fraud.
This is causing concern among immigrant advocates who say that the so-called crackdown is ineffective at least and detrimental to the system at worst, as it is causing delays in other areas.
Minister Kenney’s office, however, continues to trumpet the benefits of the strict policy indicating that nearly 3,000 people are currently under investigation, though less than 10 percent of which have been located thus far.
“The process to revoke citizenship is lengthy so it will take some time to revoke the citizenship of thousands of people, considering the process started only a year and a half ago,” said a CIC spokesperson. “But no matter how long it takes, we will ensure that the full strength of the law is applied to anyone who lied or cheated to obtain Canadian citizenship.”
Those who are suspected of fraud do have a potential course of action to pursue to defend their citizenship – they may ask the Federal Court to conduct a review. There is no time limit in which the government may seek a revocation, and they can do so on grounds of “fraud, false representation or deliberately hiding information that could have affected a person’s eligibility for permanent residency or citizenship.”
Source: Calgary Herald