Minimum Sentences Dept: This singularly useless measure is reportedly being proposed to cabinet by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. Meanwhile, recent news reports can only increase Canadians' already-substantial suspicion about the legitimacy of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee claimants who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea last month, and of further shiploads of claimants now foreseen, according to Montreal Gazette. Fortunately, Toews is not the only minister involved. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is in South Asia now, talking to officials and seeking ways to forestall more boatloads of queue-jumpers. That more muscular approach seems to us far more promising than fooling around with minimum penalties for people-smugglers we never catch anyway and get caught trying to smuggle 10 or more people into Canada and you can be fined a maximum of $1 million or sentenced to spend life in prison. But the Conservative government, scrambling to look "tough" against shiploads of questionable refugee claimants, is now reportedly considering minimum sentences as well. For one thing, thousands of Tamils are now reportedly returning to Sri Lanka, as the security situation there improves. Others have already done the paperwork, from India or elsewhere, to come to Canada, but cannot muster the cash "fare" that people smugglers charge. Another report says Ottawa knows of Tamils accepted as refugees in this country who have since returned there for vacation, or on business. Some refugees! As
reported in the news.
@t sri lankan tamil, montreal gazette
10.9.10
