MG> Immigrant ID-card program under fire

MG> By KIM LUNMAN
MG> From Saturday's Globe and Mail

MG> (Ottawa) Canada's strict new security policy for landed immigrants that has
MG> left 48 permanent residents stranded overseas in the past three days because
MG> they don't have permanent-resident cards is a bureaucratic mess, critics said
MG> Friday.

MG> "This is absolute folly", said Winnipeg MP Pat Martin, the
NDP's Citizenship
MG> and Immigration critic. "There should be an immediate
moratorium and amnesty
MG> for a six-month period until such time as this bureaucratic mess can be
MG> straightened out".

MG> Immigration officials and airline representatives played down any perceived
MG> problems yesterday with the federal government's new PR card. Since
the Dec. 31
MG> deadline passed, people around the globe have been turned away from flights to
MG> Canada for not having the card. They were referred to Canadian consulates for
MG> temporary travel documents and forced to rebook.

MG> Citizenship and Immigration spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said 12 people
MG> attempting to fly to Canada were not allowed to board planes Friday because
MG> they did not have a PR card or temporary travel documents. Ms. Iadinardi could
MG> not provide any more details about the passengers. We don't have all the
MG> information on the particulars of the cases because the cases are
reviewed on a
MG> case-by-case basis, she said.

MG> Many airlines have been very helpful in rebooking these passengers with the
MG> proper documentation. And we're going to continue to facilitate the
re-entry to
MG> Canada of those legitimate permanent residents, she said. We always have
MG> contingency plans in place...to ensure that everything goes the way it should.

MG> The cards were announced in 2002 as part of new security measures in reaction
MG> to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

MG> "The department of Citizenship and Immigration couldn't organize a peanut
MG> stand. Clearly the system is not primed and ready to go", said
Victor Wong,
MG> executive director of the Vancouver Association of Chinese
Canadians. "You have
MG> to ask yourself what kind of security device is this?" Mr. Wong
said. "We're
MG> concerned from a human-rights perspective".

And I'm concerned from a security persepective.  If you have this sort 
of requirement in place, the only one you'll know for sure if it works 
is if you start having to turn people away.  It's working; it's 
inconvenient; and it's the price you pay for being secure.

shades{at}shadesworld.net
http://shadesworld.net

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