Should  minor  criminals  who  are  not citizens  be  deported?

The white bakground behind some of the text is merely an anomaly in the printing 

Canadian permanent residents who are not yet Canadian citizens and who have been convicted of a minor single crime such as shoplifting may soon be deported no matter how long they have lived in Canada.  Even if they have lived in Canada for decades and worked and raised their families in Canada and paid their taxes all the years they worked, they are subjected to the cruel and unfair edict of C-43, the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act that Parliament is currently studying before they vote it into law.

Imagine if you will that you have lived in Canada for the past sixty years and never applied for Canadian citizenship. You are the father of three children and you visit one of your children at his home for supper and you drink a bit too much before you get into your car and you are stopped on the way home by the police. You have a reading of 100 BAC and are convicted of being impaired while driving your vehicle home.

How will you feel when the federal government tells you that you must leave Canada because you now have a criminal record?  How will your wife, your three children and their children react when you are about to board the plane that will take you to your original homeland which you left as a small child—another country where you now have no family, no friends, no home or a job to go to because you are too old to work and worse yet, you can’t even speak the language in that country?

Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, the man who brought this Bill to Parliament is aware that the Bill doesn’t make any distinction between serious criminals who murdered their victims and minor criminals who are given a two-year conditional sentence where they are not sent to prison. In effect, this proposed law imposes a ‘one-strike and you’re out’ rule that doesn’t consider other factors, such as illness, family responsibilities, the non-seriousness of the crime committed and the serious consequences that a deportation will have on the lives of the deportee and his or her family.                                                      

The proposed Bill also punishes a non-citizen who is a permanent resident living in Canada who visits another country and is convicted of the minor crime of shoplifting in the country he visits.  When he returns to Canada, he will get his deportation notice.

The new law being proposed by immigration minister Jason Kenney will see minor criminals deported from Canada without any right to seek any form of appeal to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board.

For decades, the problems facing the deportees and their families have been the cornerstones in deportation appeals to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board which will now lose its jurisdiction to hear the cases of any permanent resident who has been handed a sentence of imprisonment of six months or more regardless of the nature of the crime committed. Is this how the Canadian government brings justice and fair-mindedness to the people of Canada?

If this Bill is passed, we will be returning our country to the biblical era where offenders were banished forever from their homes, their families and friends for minor indiscretions.

There is no doubt in my mind that the drafters of this particular Bill acted in an unconscionable manner by ignoring the fact that a nation such as Canada has always allowed people who commit minor infractions of the law a second chances so that they can live the lives of law abiding citizens. Now the government simply wants to turf them out of the country without giving them a chance to reform.

Bill C-43 which is titled The Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act has been named as such to give the impression to the public that its real purpose is to target foreign criminals who are seeking to enter Canada when, in fact, its main targets are lawfully admitted permanent residents; many of whom were brought to Canada at a young age and who have been raised here, educated here, and who have established families and businesses here and have committed minor crimes in Canada or elsewhere. This proposed Bill if passed by the Canadian Parliament will bring shame to the citizens of Canada who believe in justice for all, irrespective as to whether or not our minor offenders are Canadian citizens.

Will the Immigration Department deport a man who is convicted of shoplifting to Iran, North Korea, Iraq or Afghanistan where his chances of receiving justice is next to nothing and his life will definitely be at risk?

And if not, then would it be fair to then send another minor criminal to a country where he doesn’t suffer the consequences that he would get if he was sent to the four previously mentioned countries? If so, then this means that the law is two-tiered. The same kind of minor criminals get uneven justice. One gets to stay and the other gets turfed.

The real issue that many people are concerned about is whether or not deportations of permanent residents who commit crimes who are not Canadian citizens is contrary to Sections 7, 12 and 15 of Canada’s Charter of Rights. The guarantees in the Charter refer to everyone and that includes non-citizens who are residing in Canada.

Section 7 guarantees everyone the right to life, liberty, and security of the person.

Section 12 guarantees everyone will not be subjected to any cruel and unusual punishment.

Section 15 guarantees that everyone is equal before the law and under the law and has the right to equal treatment and benefit without discrimination.

In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada looked into this issue in which a non-Canadian and who was a permanent resident of Canada was to be deported because he had previously been convicted of a serious offence while living in Canada. He was a member of a criminal organization which engaged in extortion and drug related activities and he personally took part in the extortion and drug related activities of the organization. The government was also convinced that he was a person reasonably likely to continue engaging in organized crime.

The criminal, Joseph Chiarelli (through his lawyer) argued that the Immigration Act under which he was to be deported infringed sections 7, 12 and 15 of the Charter in that the law required the deportation of persons convicted of an offence carrying a maximum punishment of five years or more, without reference to the circumstances of the offence or the offender, and if so, he argued that the infringements were not justified and he could seek relief under Section 1 of the Charter which states that actions of the government must be reasonable in a free and democratic society. 

The court ruled that deportation order did not result in an infringement of Section 7 having regard to the process followed by the Security Intelligence Review Committee. With respect to the requirement that persons convicted of an offence carrying a maximum punishment of five years or more be deported, without reference to the circumstances of the offence or the offender, does not offend sections 7 , 12 or  15 assuming that these sections applied.

The reasons for this is that if a criminal is convicted of a serious crime in Canada such as murder, rape, or any other violent crime and that includes extortion, it doesn’t really matter that his deportation will inconvenience him or his family unless because of as a direct result of his deportation, his life will be at risk or he will be subjected to torture or the death penalty.

Recently, the Canadian government decided not to deport a man back to his former homeland, a man they suspect is a terrorist, because his life would be at risk. He gets to stay in Canada but under the proposed changes in the Immigration law, a repeat shoplifter who has an extended family in Canada can be kicked out. Whisper it in my ear if you are too embarrassed to say it out loud; that this is fair and just.