Canada 2000 Immigration

Sounds official, sounds authoritative, doesn't it?  Located in a little office near Citadel Hill, Halifax.  The address, 1461 Brenton Street.  By odd coincidence that is the very same address listed by almost 200 immigrants to Canada.  That would include a senior Arab Bank official from Dubai, an endocrinologist at the Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an executive at a Beirut, Lebanon investment house. 

A very crowded place, 1461 Brenton Street.

And such distinguished residents.  A boon for Canada, to be certain.  Still, all those people living in one cramped little place in Halifax?  Canada Border Services Agency dispatched a federal immigration investigator to have a look and report back.  To perhaps explain why such distinguished individuals would be content to live in such close quarters, all of them together, one big happy immigrant group.

Curiouser and Curiouser, as Lewis Carroll, doped up as usual, had poor Alice say, in Wonderland.  Seems a whole lot of people think fondly of Canada as being a Wonderland.  It's quite wonderful how many social benefits are freely available for landed immigrants and those who take out permanent residency in this country; enviable beyond words.

It doesn't hurt, either, that government agencies are so trusting.  Or short-staffed.  And it's an additional bonus that Canada is such a quiet, peaceful country, law-abiding and a guarantor of equality rights irrespective of religion, gender, heritage, ideology, orientation.  With some exceptions, needless to say; there are no guarantees of the right to slander other Canadians, to threaten them, or spread hate in the population.

C2K (shorthand for Canada 2000 Immigration, natch) was placed under close surveillance by the CBSA, search warrants executed, and evidence gathered, ending with charges being laid against three individuals, for operating a fraudulent immigration scheme.  The CBSA charged the company with the creation for their clients of "the fictitious appearance" of having lived in Canada, while instead they remained living abroad.

C2K helpfully managed affairs for its clients at $25,000 a pop, so it would appear that they qualified for residency requirements to attain Canadian citizenship.  Clearly criminal activities, but very useful for the applicants and their enablers alike.  And most popular in certain circles.  C2K president Ziad El Shurafa, living in Dubai denies he has undertaken such illegal activities.  As in perish the thought.

"We will not stand by and allow people to lie and cheat their way into becoming citizens", said Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, announcing that almost eleven thousand people are currently under investigation for immigration fraud.  The revocation of citizenship from over three thousand individuals who had obtained their citizenship by fraud is in full swing.

This is no fly-by-night operation, Canada 2000 Immigration, with offices in Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  This is big business.  Time-consuming and professional and, of course, lucrative.  Now, alas, defunct.