Ridding Canada of Foreign Thugs

"The great difficulty with properly reintegrating criminal deportees has ultimately contributed to deportee-related problems with unemployment, homelessness, inadequate housing, property crime, mental health and addiction."
Security Governance Group study

"We continually monitor global events, ongoing issues and research related to crime and enforcement to guide policy development [in returning criminal nationals to their countries of origin]."
Scott Bardsley, spokesman, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale

"Canada can plan an important role in international efforts to support deportees and the Honduran authorities, while pushing for broader security and justice reform in Honduras."
Security Governance Group study

"We have enough people who are working these [terrorism] cases, but they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing."
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson

"The operational tempo over the medium to long term is not sustainable and will require redress over the next few years", reads a report from the RCMP, addressing the issue of hundreds of Mounted Police investigators deployed from other more mundane yet vital criminal investigations such as organized crime, financial crime and drug investigations, toward terrorism probes. That redeployment of manpower into the sphere of the terrorist threat has left the RCMP with "insufficient personnel".

Fotolia

"These redeployed resources remain insufficient, leaving limited personnel for serious and organized-crime and financial-crime investigations", reads an annual RCMP  report on its operations. The escalating threats posed b the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the issue of Canadian Islamist fighters  heading to or returning from Syria and Iraq, plus the dangers inherent in domestic ISIL sympathizers spell a full plate for the federal police.

One tool that the previous government brought into law was to return dual citizens who engage in terrorism or support terrorism, to their countries of origin but it has now been yanked by the new Liberal government.  Michel Coulombe, head of  Canada's intelligence agency CSIS, revealed last week that authorities know of 60 individuals who have fought in the ranks of ISIL, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups abroad, and who have now returned to Canada.

Personnel are now strained to the limit but there are other public safety and security issues emanating from other groups placing additional strains on law-enforcement. In particular criminals of Jamaican and Honduran heritage have appeared as yet another area of contention when the choice to deport them to their countries of origin are being brought into question as a wise alternative, when questions arise whether the Government of Canada should commit to support programs to turn them away from crime.

Again, the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act is being questioned for its efficacy, in ridding Canada of foreign criminals. Canada has absorbed about a quarter-million people with Jamaican ancestry, and between 2000 and 2013, about 2,800 of them were deported back to Jamaica. Canadian and Jamaican experts have informed researchers that the deportees face difficulties in obtaining employment, housing, education and health care in Jamaica.

All of which speak to an inability to adequately reintegrate into society, leading them back to the commission of criminal acts to survive. And in Jamaica the obvious choice would be to join the illegal trade in cocaine for which Jamaica has become a major shipper for South American drugs. Jamaican organized crime as well has expanded to lottery scams impacting Canadians.

As for Honduras, people deported there find a country facing urgent humanitarian problems with street gangs and organized crime groups proliferating, and heavy involvement in the drug trade. Poor economic conditions, social stigma and the threat of violence make for building a new life there difficult for deportees, some of whom have been raised all their lives in Canada.

The Honduran organizations offering social services to deportees are poorly funded and find it difficult to deal with the massive inflow of returnees, particularly from the United States. The issue seems to be primarily that significant segments of populations emigrating from the Middle East, Jamaica, and Honduras under the best of life conditions turn to crime, and then the welcoming country finds itself burdened with their criminal presence.