This is the second in a series of cross-country town hall meetings the Minister is hosting on this issue.
"I want to hear people's views and experiences related to marriages of convenience and their opinions and ideas on how best to address them," said Minister Kenney. "I believe that we can sometimes get the best ideas from the grass-roots. That's why we're doing these consultations."
Another town hall meeting on this issue is planned for Montreal later this month.
To complement the town hall meetings, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recently launched online consultations on marriage fraud. The national online questionnaire is available on CIC's website at cic.sondages-surveys.ca/s/marriage-fraud/langen and is open until November 3 for public input.
Minister Kenney raised immigration fraud issues during his recent visit to China, India and the Philippines, the top three sources of immigrants to Canada. There, he discussed opportunities for collaboration in combating immigration fraud, including the use of marriages of convenience to circumvent Canada's immigration laws. Canada is also working closely with India to put a stop to the operations of fraudsters in the Punjab region.
Information collected through the town hall meetings and online consultations will help inform future actions taken by the Government of Canada to address marriage fraud.-StarBuzz weekly, Toronto
Minister's efforts are commendable.
ReplyDeleteThere is no question of opinion in this case --Fraudulent marriages are as criminal as stealing or assault or maybe worst than that !
ReplyDeleteI'd like to ask a question.
ReplyDeleteTo be clear I do not mean offense to anybody here. I am of Indian decent and immigrated 12 years ago to Canada. I love Canada and its people and when I immigrated, I embraced everything Canadian. Yes, I still have some ties to my former 'home' (family/friends) but my life is Here. Therefore it would never even occur to me to go back and find myself a bride and take her with me to Canada.
Having said that, here's my question: Why?
Why is there such a need for "real grooms or brides needed from India" (or elsewhere considered 'back home')?????
When somebody left everything behind to come to Canada and start a new life, why not find a partner (husband/wife) here to share life and the future with?
Please don't get me wrong, it's not that I gave up or lost my cultural heritage by coming to Canada..I still very well mantain my religion (hinduism) and my culture, but I don't want to be a foreigner in my new, chosen home either.
I am exposed to and am very well aware of such incidences, where the individual is offered an amount of cash to take the bride's/groom's hand in marriage, just to assure the parents that their child will be well taken care of, by being brought to Canada, but one must keep in mind of such failures. Most individuals here get forced to follow their parents arranged marriage wish, due to the individual him/herself not being able to have a normal relationship with someone here, who is already brought up and adapted to the Canadian Culture. Bringing a so-called bride/groom upon marrying the person back home, in my opinion, I believe it's a disaster! If it didn't work out for the individual with its prior partners in the first place, what makes the court and immigration believe that the individual will be committed and honestly dedicated to its current so-called marriage that was done quickly back home?? Also, how long have they known one another for? How much was the pay out (notice change in materialistic things, such as new car/house/etc)? What kind of relationship issues did the individual have, prior to its marriage back home? It's clear that people over 25 years of age, have dramatically failed their parents relationship wise and are given no other choice, but to marry a village girl/guy, and bring them to canada, upon an arranged and asked price provided by the bride's/groom's family. Individuals, who claim to have a bride/groom back home and want to migrate their partner to Canada, should be monitored and screened, and if they have married back home, then their marriage shall be only considered legal back home, for the abuse towards immigration opportunities and disrespect to the Canadian Government and its People is obvious, but yet still denied by its naiveness.
Given also into consideration..how many of such marriages do actually last? Most get divorced within the first five years into the marriage, due to either giving birth to a challenged child, or the individual that is forced to agree on such marriage, ends up committing adultery and drifting away from the partner..
Arranged marriages do not last.
So therefore..Why?? Why even bother risking of marrying that girl/boy, when you know that your life is ruined either way..either by emotionally ruining yourself and pushing yourself to love someone you don't even know, or you may just end up getting caught, no matter how well you cover it up..wheater the person may have been known by family for year, or you just met them on shaadi.com
I say, screen individuals, and see if prior convictions have occured, and if so, then the admissal of the partner that is back home, eagerly awaiting to abuse the opportunity, should be re-considered.
PS: No matter what, fraud is fraud and should be treated like any other crime.
Thank you for your time.