Wrong Priorities

Canada's immigration system was exploited by organized crime. Ottawa's bigger concern seems to be what you say about it.

Imagine telling your daughter she can’t play outside because another business owner in the city was just threatened by organized crime.

Then, imagine explaining that the government seems far more interested in whether someone says the wrong thing online than whether the people making those threats should have been in Canada in the first place. That isn’t just frustrating, it’s backwards!

Every month Canadians send billions of dollars to Ottawa expecting government to do the basics: secure the border, enforce the law, and protect families. Instead, it increasingly feels like we’re paying a security company that spends more time playing computer solitaire than watching the front door.

That’s the real story behind the classified CBSA intelligence report that has now come to light.

According to reporting by Global News, Canada’s own border intelligence concluded that India’s Bishnoi gang exploited Canada’s international student and temporary resident programs to establish and expand a criminal network here.

The report describes organized crime using study permits and work permits to recruit members, facilitate extortion, and expand operations across Canada. It also details the dramatic rise in criminal charges involving some study permit holders and identifies Goldy Brar as entering Canada on a student visa in 2017 before allegedly becoming one of the gang’s most notorious figures. Now read that one more time.

Canada didn’t just fail to stop organized crime. According to our own intelligence, organized crime identified weaknesses in our immigration system and used them. Meanwhile, what has Ottawa been laser-focused on?

Speech. Specifically… your speech.

Bill C-9 expands hate-crime laws, while police services across Canada are encouraging citizens to report hate incidents, including conduct that may not itself be criminal. In this day of “everything is offensive” what exactly is hateful? According to Justin Trudeau, every person “experiences” things differently, so think about the message that sends:

- Foreign criminal organizations exploit our immigration system.

- Citizens who point it out are told to be careful what they say.

That isn’t public safety, that’s staged political theatre. So before the usual accusations begin from the easily triggered leftists out there, let’s clear something up right now…

This isn’t about ethnicity, and it’s not about nationality, nor is it about immigrants. We are told by the Liberal government of Canada that the overwhelming majority of immigrants come here to work hard, obey the law, and build better lives. They’re victims too.

They are the small business owners being extorted. They’re the families living under threats. They are the honest newcomers whose reputations are damaged because governments refuse to deal decisively with the relatively small number of criminals abusing Canada’s generosity.

A functioning immigration system protects immigrants every bit as much as it protects everyone else. But somewhere along the way, Ottawa developed an allergy to making obvious distinctions.

Criticize a terrorist gang? Risk being accused of spreading hate. Demand that non-citizens convicted of serious crimes be deported under Canadian law? Apparently, that’s controversial now.

Meanwhile, the gang carrying out shootings, intimidation and extortion somehow became yesterday’s news. That tells you everything about Liberal priorities, not outcomes.

It’s the optics the Liberals seem to be concerned about, not the criminal stealing your car or shaking you down for money. It’s also not enforcement they’re concerned about either… it’s the messaging. It feels like it’s not about Canadians at all, so much as the Liberal Party narratives and their desire to be seen as doing something in order to curry favour that translates to election votes. To be blunt, the Liberal government playbook appears to be

• Protect the image at all costs!
• Manage the headlines religiously!
• Hope nobody notices the front door is still open and has the temerity to point it out!

If the government genuinely wants Canadians reporting hate, then perhaps Canadians should take it at its word and report all of it?!

If someone publicly glorifies Hamas or another listed terrorist organization, report it. If someone threatens Canadians because of their religion, race, or ethnicity, report it. If demonstrators openly celebrate violence or chant for the destruction of another people, report it! If you see conduct that appears to unlawfully discriminate against Canadians because of their race, report it to the appropriate hate speech authority.

If police services are inviting Canadians to report hate, then the standard shouldn’t change depending on who’s committing it. Hate doesn’t become acceptable because it’s imported, and hate doesn’t become diversity because the person expressing it is on a visa.

Afterall, hate is hate right? If the rules apply equally, then Canadians should expect them to be enforced equally. If they don’t, perhaps this was never really about combatting hate. Maybe… just maybe it was always about deciding whose hate counts more?

This isn’t an isolated failure either. It’s another example of the governing philosophy Canadians have watched for years:
👉🏻 Borders became "unwelcoming."
👉🏻 Screening became "problematic."
👉🏻 Enforcement became "insensitive."
👉🏻 Common sense became "divisive."

And somehow asking government to enforce Canadian law became more offensive than the people breaking it. I do not know a single soul that voted for that, do you? The tragedy is that ordinary Canadians, including thousands of honest immigrants, are paying the price.

Business owners pay extortion money, families lose their sense of safety, all while police chase increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. To add insult to injury, taxpayers fund the entire mess, then they’re told to watch their words if they talk about it. You couldn't invent a more absurd contradiction.

Except this isn’t satire folks, it’s your Liberal government’s public policy! A government’s first responsibility isn’t protecting politicians from uncomfortable conversations. It also isn’t protecting failed policies from criticism and it’s definitely not protecting criminals from deportation when they commit crimes.

A government’s first responsibility is protecting the people who built this country, the people who immigrated here legally, and every family trying to live peacefully under Canadian law. Everything else comes after that.

Until Ottawa remembers that simple truth, Canadians will keep wondering why the government seems so determined to investigate the people pointing at the fire instead of the ones holding the matches.

Prove me wrong… I'll wait.

Melanie