- Not for a moment should Canadians think they're safe
from the tactics of terrorists, when immigration authorities can't even
stop a shiftless, law-busting outsider from repeatedly slipping back in.
-
- Canada has sent Dewitt Blackwood home to Jamaica eight
times in 14 years but -- like the cat in the cartoon -- he keeps returning,
outfoxing officials because, concedes a frustrated Toronto cop, he knows
the system better than they do.
-
- There's little comfort knowing police remain stumped
over how this lowlife keeps popping up, committing crimes in Canada as
though he belonged here, while Ottawa continues to suck up Canadians' tax
money in a consistently futile effort to deport this crack jack.
-
- You'd think the rogue would be too busy dodging police
and deportation hearings to pull off a string of crimes. But no, from sexual
assault, indecent acts and dealing crack cocaine to stabbing a police officer,
he's done it. It was the 1990 attempted-murder rap for the last-mentioned
offence that set the revolving door in motion.
-
- "Could you tell me how Blackwood keeps slipping
past the authorities and into Canada?" I asked the Ottawa office of
the Honourable Judy Sgro, minister of immigration.
-
- "Yes we could, but no, we won't," said communications
director Derick Dodgson.
-
- "Privacy Act, you see. We can't release people's
private files. It just can't be done."
-
- Let's see if I've got this: A criminal with no right
to be in Canada, who keeps breaking our laws and cheating and costing the
system, is entitled to have his shenanigans kept under wraps, yet law-abiding
taxpayers are not entitled to know how it is their country's security is
as tight as a sieve?
-
- Blackwood's one of 36,000 undesirables loose in Canada
whom authorities ordered deported but have since lost track of.
-
- I was urged to keep in mind that illegals have numerous
shifty ways to creep past border guards unnoticed. There are rivers, woods
. . .
-
- Who says he entered through the U.S.? Maybe he flew here
and snuck past airport security. And if he can move to and fro so easily,
can't others?
-
- Now, that's tough to do these days, Dodgson assured me.
What with the new laminated permanent residence card. While not foolproof,
it's a darn sight more tamper-resistant than the old ID documents. Then
there's the federal government's new Canadian Border Security Agency. Although
that is still in its infancy, security enforcement has been turned up a
notch.
-
- And not a moment too soon, I'd say. Police picked up
Blackwood again last week for peddling crack cocaine. With the feds getting
another stab at deporting the criminal, there'll be ample opportunity to
put our beefed-up security measures to the test.
-
- © The Vancouver Province 2004
-
- http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/columnists/story.html?
id=91749176-6337-45cf-8852-0c329102220f
|
