Giving Immigrants A Bad Name

Hard to explain away, actually. One might deduce that if a young man arrived in Canada from another country where violence and gangs are prevalent, and authorities helpless to manage the situation, the character damage would have been pre-existent. How to explain a young boy of 10 or 12 entering the country as an immigrant, along with his family, experiencing Canadian life, its schools and social-equality opportunities, and ending up consistently afoul of the law?

If that young person is not a Canadian citizen, has lived in Canada as a landed immigrant, he can be deported. In fact, in the case of Teofilo Gyampie Massoni Vasquez,who arrived in Canada at age 10 from Peru with his family in 2001, it was his family's claim for refugee status that was rejected. Their claim of refugee status was seen to lack credibility, and although the family appealed, they were finally deported back to Peru in 2005.

But Teofilo Vasquez decided to return to Canada in 2007 where he was permitted entry and obtained permanent residence status in Montreal. When he had left with his family in 2005 he had already established a reputation with police as a member of a street gang. The year of his return police linked him to death threats expressed against a rival gang member.

And he became more prominent in criminal circles, and the incidents of violence in which he was involved escalated. He has been linked to and involved in robberies, stabbings, beatings, gunplay, turf wars, and an unsolved murder. At which point, around 2009, Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board recognizing him as involved in organized crime, ordered him deported.

He launched a series of appeals. And continued to engage in more criminal activities. Justice Shore of the Federal Court of Canada set aside all further efforts on the now-21-year-old man's behalf for further delays in deportation. And opted for an accelerated removal. Reasonably enough, given the young man's devotion to crime and the time that had already elapsed in appeal.

"The applicant's removal is not simply a question of administrative convenience, but implicates the integrity and fairness of, and public confidence in, Canada's system of immigration control. The integrity of the immigration system depends on immigration law being interpreted and administered in support of the legislation; this legislation requires that the prompt removal of those ordered deported must be the rule, and the grant of a stay pending the disposition of legal proceedings.
One factor, above all else, weighs heavily in favour of the ministers in the present matter: the Canadian public's right to be protected from criminal individuals who are not entitled to remain in Canada."

To which Canada Border Services responded with commendable alacrity, deporting Teofilo Gyampie Massoni Vasquez to Peru without further delay.