Jim Metcalfe – Director of Immigration: In the past several weeks the Canadian press has carried stories of fraudulent activities by immigration consultants who have been helping people achieve bogus citizenship or permanent residence status.

A crooked consultant in British Columbia who dealt with Chinese applicants was convicted of helping hundreds of people try to scam the system. He received a 7 year sentence and a fine of close to a million dollars. Meanwhile on the other coast in Nova Scotia, a different consultant received a suspended sentence and no financial penalty for helping hundreds of others buck the system. He got off the hook for medical reasons. His clients were mainly from the Middle East.

Co-Conspirators Are Not Victims

It would be wrong to characterize the “clients” of these scam artists as victims. They weren’t taken advantage of by an unscrupulous advisor. Rather, these people were co-conspirators who bought into the plan to gain Canadian citizenship illegally. I have little or no sympathy for them.

The Canadian government will now likely start the process of revoking the citizenship or PR status of these people and perhaps charge them under the Citizenship or Immigration Acts. It will be a long, tedious process but presumably the authorities have seized all of the files and will begin soon, as they should.