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22.09.2008 13:05

Victimized by con artists, neglected by Canadians

June 20, 2007

Desperate people take desperate measures. That is a fact of life. Manipulating such human vulnerability, however, has sadly become the modus operandi of many unscrupulous and unethical immigration consultants.

The Toronto three-part series on immigration consultants has helped unearth the many horror stories involving consultants who break the law in the name of "helping" potential immigrants, and the dire consequences that befall their sometimes unwitting clients.

At the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, we have seen our fair share of dishonourable consultants. In all too many cases, clients who are either obtaining status for themselves, or trying to sponsor their loved ones from abroad, have their applications rejected because of the sloppy documentation or outright false information provided on their behalf – and often without their knowledge – by their consultants.

It is appalling to see so many consultants taking advantage of people from their own community. Immigrants and refugees rely on these consultants because there are too few lawyers from the racialized communities and even fewer who can speak their native language. Consultants advertise in ethnic newspapers because through them they can reach a captive market with a huge demand.

There is no question that there are those who willingly go along with what the consultants offer – legal or otherwise – because nothing else has worked. Some of these individuals likely have been advised by lawyers and other consultants that what they want simply cannot be achieved. They have made a conscious choice to go down a legally and morally challenged path and arguably should bear the consequence of their own action.

But for the most part, potential immigrants and immigration sponsors turn to consultants because the latter offer something that has thus far eluded them – hope.

These so-called consultants are no different from con artists who sell dreams of a good life to Canadians with get-rich-quick schemes. Instead of stealing their clients' life savings, unethical consultants rob the immigrants of their chance for a better future and hopes of being reunited with their families.

But unlike pensioners whose retirement fund has been stolen, immigrants – and, worse still, non-status immigrants – garner no public support when they fall prey to such scams. Indeed, the opposite often holds true. The immigration system immediately labels the victims as lawbreakers and swiftly takes action to either deport them or bar them from bringing their families to Canada.

The public, likewise, cannot wait to get rid of people whom they regard, at best, as an unwanted by-product of an open society and, at worst, a drain on our system.

Also, unlike other con artists whose actions can be judged by the criminal system, disreputable consultants effectively operate in a lawless zone. Jurisdictional wrangling between the federal and provincial governments means bodies like the Law Society of Upper Canada will not govern immigration consultants even as the society takes on regulating other para- legals. The various law enforcement agencies, on the other hand, cannot charge them because they are supposed to be part of a self-regulating profession.

In short, these consultants are not accountable to anyone, and when they get caught, it is their clients who suffer.

The fact that these "consulting" businesses are allowed not only to exist, but even to flourish, is a reflection of the failure of self-regulating bodies to govern their profession in the public interest.

It also is an indictment of an immigration and refugee system that has gone terribly wrong. Wrong, not in the sense that the system is vulnerable to abuse, but that it has become so restrictive that too many people – including those who deserve our protection and those who can make a positive contribution to our country – are being turned away.

Prosecuting consultants who practise without a licence is but one solution needed to address this problem.

Another solution is to make the legal profession more responsive to the needs of immigrants and racialized communities by increasing representation of lawyers from these communities.

But most fundamentally, the only way to cure cancer is to root out the cause. For that, we need an overhaul of the immigration system to rid it of its cold-hearted bureaucracy and inhumane laws.

For the non-status people who are already here, we need to give them a real chance to regularize their status. For others who have yet to arrive, we must put in place laws and policies that honour their human rights and value their contributions and needs.