At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence. Booker T. Washington

Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confirmed on Wednesday that as many as 1,800 new Canadians could be stripped of their citizenship because documents were fraudulently obtained, according to a report in the Toronto Star.

Kenney told the Economic Club of Canada that some of the individuals are believed to have used “unscrupulous” immigration consultants who submitted fraudulent applications on behalf of people who did not meet citizenship qualifications.

The 1,800 were homed in on following a three-year investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), other police forces and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Citizenship revocation is relatively uncommon in Canada with only 63 people being stripped of their citizenship since 1977, Kenney said, according to the Toronto Star.

Most were for reasons related to residence fraud, criminality and false identity, or concealing their involvement in war crimes.

“There are many ways that we are combating immigration fraud and abuse of our generosity, whether it is from [bogus] asylum claimants, crooked immigration consultants, people smugglers [or] people who are abusing our citizenship program,” he said, according to the Toronto Star.

The Minister also revealed that Canada will soon be introducing multi-year visas for low-risk visitors from around the world that will last 10 years.

Good citizens in spite of fraud

1, 800 could see citizenship revoked, July 21  

I am very glad that Jason Kenney wasn’t in charge of immigration and citizenship in 1944 when my parents arrived in Canada, because they certainly entered fraudulently.

My parents were traveling on forged Polish passports. I don’t know what other forged travel documents they had, and it’s too late to ask them.

I do know that they arrived in Canada claiming to be farmers — another fraud. My father was a chemist and my mother, a miller’s daughter, was equally unenlightened about farming.

They became proud Canadians. For five decades they worked hard and prospered. My father established a successful business. My mother set up a fashion boutique and became sufficiently well-known that she counted the late Queen Mother and Mrs. Nixon as clients.

Fortunately, it’s too late for Kenney to deport them. They died 11 and 10 years ago.