Monday March 03, 2014
Kaieteur News
Canada cracks down on citizenship fraud OTTAWA, Canada CMC – As concerns heighten over the recall of former St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Deputy New York Consul General, Edson Augustus, the Canadian government has announced that it is cracking down on citizenship fraud. Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said he is reinforcing the government’s commitment to tackling citizenship fraud through measures proposed in Bill C24, the “Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act”. “The government is cracking down on citizenship fraud by enforcing stronger penalties for those who do not play by the rules,” said Alexander in a statement. “Changes to the Citizenship Act reinforce the value of citizenship and will help ensure new Canadians are fully prepared to participate in Canadian life and have a stronger attachment to our country,” he added. “Stronger penalties for those who commit citizenship fraud will protect the integrity of Canadian citizenship,” Alexander continued. “The government’s changes to the Citizenship Act reinforce the message that Canadian citizenship is valued around the globe and will be afforded those who recognize that it comes with duties and rights, privileges and responsibilities.” Under the new legislation, the Canadian government will have the authority to develop regulations to designate a regulatory body whose members would be authorized to act as consultants on citizenship
Edson Augustus matters. “This change will help protect applicants and deter third-party fraud,” said the statement, adding that Bill C24 “reinforces the value of citizenship by cracking down on fraud and ensuring Canadian citizenship is only offered to those who play by the rules.” The proposed measure includes stronger penalties for fraud and misrepresentation (a maximum fine of CAN$100,000 and/or five years in prison); expanding the grounds to bar an application for citizenship to include foreign criminality, “which will help improve program integrity”; and making it an offence for unauthorized individuals to “knowingly represent or advise a person on a citizenship application or hearing for a fee.” Alexander said “ongoing large-scale” fraud investigations conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have identified more than 3,000 citizens and 5,000 permanent residents linked to major investigations—a majority of them related to residence. In addition, he said nearly
2,000 individuals linked to the citizenship fraud investigations have withdrawn their applications. He said the legislation brings Canada in line with “most of our peer countries, by providing that citizenship can be revoked from dual nationals who are convicted of terrorism, high treason and spying offences (depending on the sentence received), or who take up arms against Canada.” He said permanent residents who commit these acts will be barred from applying for citizenship. Claiming that its immigration system was broken and was being taken advantage of by “bogus” refugee claimants from “democratic, human rightsrespecting countries,” such as St Vincent and the Grenadines, Alexander ’s predecessor, Jason Kenney, last year announced a major overhaul of the system. Kenny’s announcement had come amid what has been described as heightened fraudulent claims for asylum in Canada by Vincentians and other Caribbean nationals. In an exposé, on November 12, 2011, the Toronto Star, under the caption, “SVG - Is this Caribbean Idyll the Worst Place in the World to be a Woman,” said that the majority of Vincentians flocking to Canada, seeking refugee status, are women, who, it appears, are “fleeing domestic violence.” In response, the then Consul General to Toronto, Steve Phillips, said there was “no political, religious or social conditions in St. Vincent that justify any Vincentian applying for refugee status.”
Government signs agreement with United States NASSAU, Bahamas CMC – The Bahamas says its collaborative efforts with the United States remain critical for the continued fight against the “constant assault” of trans-national criminal activity. “Today, money laundering and trafficking in illicit drugs, illegal small and light firearms and human continue to test and challenge the national law enforcement agencies of countries globally,” said Foreign Affairs and
Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell as he signed the “Modification / Amendment Five to the Letter of Agreement (ALOA) on Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement of September 24, 2010” with Washington. Mitchell said criminals were becoming more ingenious in their methods of trans-national criminal activity, “which have no boundary and continue to attack and destroy the very essence of our society”. He said the signing of the
agreement signals the commitment of the two countries in the areas of law enforcement, support, counter-narcotics control, drug demand reduction and anti-corruption reform. “On behalf of the Government and the people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, I offer my thanks for this contribution of $1,850,000, which will assist in the efforts of The Bahamas in its initiatives and fight against the surge of organised crime,” Mitchell said.
Barbados Nation - CLICO POLICYHOLDERS MAY be getting a dream offer from a North American firm, which wants to buy all of the assets of Clico International Life (CIL) Insurance Limited and repay the principal sums to the policyholders and investors in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. The North American firm has been meeting with CIL’s judicial manager (JM) Deloitte Consulting Inc. as a result of correspondence going back to 2013. The offer to purchase
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CIL’s $800 million-plus in assets, including large tracts of land, and ensure policyholders receive over $441 million, was contained in the proposal sent to the JM and Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler recently. Delivered two days ago to Deloitte, the document obtained by the SUNDAY SUN confirmed the firm’s commitment that policyholders in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean be restored their principal investment or “made whole for their principal”.
Chris Sinckler
More cases of chikungunya virus reported in the Caribbean STOCKHOLM, Sweden CMC – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC) says there are reports of new cases of the chikungunya virus in the Caribbean. The ECDPC said in the past week, 293 new cases of chikungunya have been reported in the region, with confirmed ones in St. Martin (French), Martinique, St. Barthélemy and Guadeloupe. New cases also surfaced in Dominica and French Guyana as well as St. Kitts and Nevis. The ECDPC said as of
February 21, 2014, more than 5, 900 suspected cases have been reported in the region. An outbreak of chikungunya in the Caribbean was reported from the French part of the island of St. Martin on December 6. The chikungunya transmission was detected during a concomitant dengue outbreak in the Caribbean. Both diseases are transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease causing symptoms such as fever, joint pain, muscle pain,
headache and nose and gum bleeding. Chikungunya is present in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent. The most recent large outbreaks were reported in 2005–2006 from Réunion Island, Mauritius, Mayotte and several Indian states. The first transmission within continental Europe was reported from northeastern Italy in August 2007. Every year, imported cases among touri s t s are identified in several European countries.