Canadian diplomat bolts from Beijing
Sep 21, 2004
Passport scandal probe in China
A high ranking Canadian diplomat based in China has left his post suddenly after he was suspected of accepting bribes to help Chinese nationals enter Canada illegally, The Asian Pacific Post has learned.
A parallel probe is also underway on reports that Chinese passports with Canadian student visas have been stolen from the embassy. Some have reportedly turned up in Korea.
The highly sensitive and embarrassing cases are being kept under tight wraps in Ottawa which has refused to acknowledge the investigations into the passport thefts and the probe involving the missing Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade employee in China.
But sources told The Asian Pacific Post that the key suspect is a Canadian of Chinese origin who was originally posted to the Canadian Trade office in Shanghai in 1999 and later to the Immigration section of the Canadian embassy in Beijing in 2001.
It is believed he held the rank of second secretary. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the officer in question has resigned.
“He is thought to have made well over a million dollars before he bolted a few days before his posting expired,“ said a source.
Preliminary investigations into the suspect‘s connections have linked him to at least one school specializing in teaching English to foreign students in Vancouver.
Maria Iadinardi of Immigration Canada, Kimberly Phillips of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Sgt. Gilles Deziel of the RCMP all regurgitated the same government public relations mantra when contacted by The Asian Pacific Post ― We cannot confirm or deny any on-going investigation.
“It is the line that is commonly used when Ottawa doesn‘t want the public to know about a scandal,“ said Brian McAdam, a former Foreign Service officer who blew the whistle on another immigration corruption scandal involving China and Hong Kong.
The Asian Pacific Post has learned that the current case involving the diplomat revolves around visa applications, including those from so-called Chinese business delegations at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.
The investigation is focusing on insiders with high level security access contacting Chinese nationals whose visa applications to come to Canada had been recommended for rejection by junior officers.
The applicants are told that if they pay between C$10,000 and C$20,000 the recommended rejections would be overturned and a visa would be forthcoming.
“The suspect would scan visa applications that had been previously given negative recommendations by Immigration Program Assistants, contact the applicants and fix a price that would overturn the negative recommendation and result in the issuing of visas,“ said the source.
“He would select the ones from among those recommended for refusal that looked the most promising from the squeeze aspect and have them come in for an interview at the Immigration Office. He would conduct the interview with no witnesses of course and show the subject his file where it was recommended for refusal before making his pitch.
“The applicants would then jump when they arrived in Canada, some claiming refugee status….It is a good way to make money and lack of oversight makes it fairly safe as long as you don‘t get greedy,“ said the source.
It is not known how many individuals, students and bogus Chinese business delegations the suspect helped into Canada but the source indicated that it was “many dozens“
“The business delegations are the most lucrative because a delegation is obviously worth more than a single tourist visa,“ said the source, adding Ottawa needs to do an audit of visas over the last five years in Beijing to determine the scope of the scandal.
The student visa scam allegedly involves Chinese passports waiting to be collected or mailed out.
At least one batch had been stolen and possibly sold to others who have subbed their photographs onto the documents to enter Canada.
There have also been cases where original recommendations for denial of visas by junior officers have been overturned “without strong and valid reasons sometimes to bogus schools.“
A source familiar with fake student visa applications in China said nearly 50 per cent of them have bogus information on them.
There are an estimated 130,000 foreign students in Canada, with the bulk of them coming from China.
“There have been many memos to Ottawa about this scandal from last year where certain officers were turning a blind eye to high risk applicants in what were plain to see education scams,“ said an Immigration Canada officer based in Ottawa.
“In many of the cases they lie about the amount of money they have but somehow either because of policy advice or some senior officer, they get the visas,“ he said.
Canadian Embassy in Beijing
What is most worrisome for officials is that some of those who have gained entry into Canada with the help of insiders at the Canadian embassy in Beijing are spies, terrorists and gangsters.
Chinese spies posing as business delegates is an old ruse used by China‘s intelligence service.
In one recent case Chinese spies pretending to be a business delegation entered Vancouver to persuade China‘s most wanted man, Lai Changxing, to drop his refugee claim and return to face charges.
In that case, two Vancouver based companies set up by the Communist government of China provided a cover to help facilitate the covert entry of spies hunting for Lai.
The spies had applied for Canadian visas in Beijing and claimed to be a business delegation visiting Tricell (Canada) Inc. and Top Glory Enterprises Ltd in Vancouver.
The visitor visas from the bogus business delegation were endorsed by China‘s Ministry of Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) ? one of the most powerful ministries in the Chinese government.
The Chinese‘s government later apologized for hoodwinking Canada. Lai who is alleged to have led a multi-billion dollar smuggling racket in Fujian, remains in Canada with his family fighting for refugee status.
Brian McAdam, who worked as an Immigration Control officer in Hong Kong in the nineties was among the first to alert Ottawa to insiders with high security access helping unqualified applicants enter Canada.
“I am not surprised that this is still happening,“ said McAdam, who was commended for his work on identifying Triad members and Chinese spies entering Canada and later ostracized when he questioned mandarins in Ottawa about their lack of action.
His memos and reports formed the basis for an investigation by the RCMP which eventually landed on the lap of Corporal Robert Read.
The core allegations involved rich Chinese families trying to buy influence with members of the Canadian diplomatic corps, organized crime infiltration of immigration computers and the corrupt activities of an immigration consultant with strong connections who had brought in over 3,000 Chinese immigrants into Canada. The RCMP file languished for several years until Read took it over.
Frustrated at being stymied by bureaucrats and concerned that no one was addressing evidence of possible wrongdoing by mission employees, Read took his case to Vancouver Province news editor Fabian Dawson in August 1999.
Read told Dawson that he was ignoring written orders from his boss not to talk to the media because “there needs to be a public inquiry into this whole thing.”
As a result of Read‘s expose, the RCMP fired him (see www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/5.html, or search for ‘Robert Read‘ on the Asian Pacific Post site).
Last year an RCMP oversight committee vindicated the officer for blowing the whistle on corruption concerns within the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong.
The committee said Read‘s disclosure “would still have to be regarded as a matter of legitimate public concern because it exposed the fact that the force had, for seven years, failed to take appropriate action to determine if employees of the mission had engaged in immigration fraud.“
The RCMP has refused to reinstate Read. Read is now taking his case to the Federal Court. “Read found out things that the government did not want to know about and when he took it to the Canadian public, he was fired,“ said McAdam, whose work in exposing the corruption was recently made into a Canadian documentary.
“It looks like what happened in the 90s in Hong Kong is happening again in China,“ said McAdam.
“This is shocking and we need to get to the bottom of this,” said Vernon Conservative MP Darrell Stinson, who wants the government to explain the extent of damage the security breach in China has caused.
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Copyright 2004 The Asian Pacific Post with all rights reserved. Reproduction of content permitted only if accompanied with attribution to The Asian Pacific Post and link to website, www.asianpacificpost.com.
Sep 21, 2004
Passport scandal probe in China
A high ranking Canadian diplomat based in China has left his post suddenly after he was suspected of accepting bribes to help Chinese nationals enter Canada illegally, The Asian Pacific Post has learned.
A parallel probe is also underway on reports that Chinese passports with Canadian student visas have been stolen from the embassy. Some have reportedly turned up in Korea.
The highly sensitive and embarrassing cases are being kept under tight wraps in Ottawa which has refused to acknowledge the investigations into the passport thefts and the probe involving the missing Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade employee in China.
But sources told The Asian Pacific Post that the key suspect is a Canadian of Chinese origin who was originally posted to the Canadian Trade office in Shanghai in 1999 and later to the Immigration section of the Canadian embassy in Beijing in 2001.
It is believed he held the rank of second secretary. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the officer in question has resigned.
“He is thought to have made well over a million dollars before he bolted a few days before his posting expired,“ said a source.
Preliminary investigations into the suspect‘s connections have linked him to at least one school specializing in teaching English to foreign students in Vancouver.
Maria Iadinardi of Immigration Canada, Kimberly Phillips of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Sgt. Gilles Deziel of the RCMP all regurgitated the same government public relations mantra when contacted by The Asian Pacific Post ― We cannot confirm or deny any on-going investigation.
“It is the line that is commonly used when Ottawa doesn‘t want the public to know about a scandal,“ said Brian McAdam, a former Foreign Service officer who blew the whistle on another immigration corruption scandal involving China and Hong Kong.
The Asian Pacific Post has learned that the current case involving the diplomat revolves around visa applications, including those from so-called Chinese business delegations at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.
The investigation is focusing on insiders with high level security access contacting Chinese nationals whose visa applications to come to Canada had been recommended for rejection by junior officers.
The applicants are told that if they pay between C$10,000 and C$20,000 the recommended rejections would be overturned and a visa would be forthcoming.
“The suspect would scan visa applications that had been previously given negative recommendations by Immigration Program Assistants, contact the applicants and fix a price that would overturn the negative recommendation and result in the issuing of visas,“ said the source.
“He would select the ones from among those recommended for refusal that looked the most promising from the squeeze aspect and have them come in for an interview at the Immigration Office. He would conduct the interview with no witnesses of course and show the subject his file where it was recommended for refusal before making his pitch.
“The applicants would then jump when they arrived in Canada, some claiming refugee status….It is a good way to make money and lack of oversight makes it fairly safe as long as you don‘t get greedy,“ said the source.
It is not known how many individuals, students and bogus Chinese business delegations the suspect helped into Canada but the source indicated that it was “many dozens“
“The business delegations are the most lucrative because a delegation is obviously worth more than a single tourist visa,“ said the source, adding Ottawa needs to do an audit of visas over the last five years in Beijing to determine the scope of the scandal.
The student visa scam allegedly involves Chinese passports waiting to be collected or mailed out.
At least one batch had been stolen and possibly sold to others who have subbed their photographs onto the documents to enter Canada.
There have also been cases where original recommendations for denial of visas by junior officers have been overturned “without strong and valid reasons sometimes to bogus schools.“
A source familiar with fake student visa applications in China said nearly 50 per cent of them have bogus information on them.
There are an estimated 130,000 foreign students in Canada, with the bulk of them coming from China.
“There have been many memos to Ottawa about this scandal from last year where certain officers were turning a blind eye to high risk applicants in what were plain to see education scams,“ said an Immigration Canada officer based in Ottawa.
“In many of the cases they lie about the amount of money they have but somehow either because of policy advice or some senior officer, they get the visas,“ he said.
Canadian Embassy in Beijing
What is most worrisome for officials is that some of those who have gained entry into Canada with the help of insiders at the Canadian embassy in Beijing are spies, terrorists and gangsters.
Chinese spies posing as business delegates is an old ruse used by China‘s intelligence service.
In one recent case Chinese spies pretending to be a business delegation entered Vancouver to persuade China‘s most wanted man, Lai Changxing, to drop his refugee claim and return to face charges.
In that case, two Vancouver based companies set up by the Communist government of China provided a cover to help facilitate the covert entry of spies hunting for Lai.
The spies had applied for Canadian visas in Beijing and claimed to be a business delegation visiting Tricell (Canada) Inc. and Top Glory Enterprises Ltd in Vancouver.
The visitor visas from the bogus business delegation were endorsed by China‘s Ministry of Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) ? one of the most powerful ministries in the Chinese government.
The Chinese‘s government later apologized for hoodwinking Canada. Lai who is alleged to have led a multi-billion dollar smuggling racket in Fujian, remains in Canada with his family fighting for refugee status.
Brian McAdam, who worked as an Immigration Control officer in Hong Kong in the nineties was among the first to alert Ottawa to insiders with high security access helping unqualified applicants enter Canada.
“I am not surprised that this is still happening,“ said McAdam, who was commended for his work on identifying Triad members and Chinese spies entering Canada and later ostracized when he questioned mandarins in Ottawa about their lack of action.
His memos and reports formed the basis for an investigation by the RCMP which eventually landed on the lap of Corporal Robert Read.
The core allegations involved rich Chinese families trying to buy influence with members of the Canadian diplomatic corps, organized crime infiltration of immigration computers and the corrupt activities of an immigration consultant with strong connections who had brought in over 3,000 Chinese immigrants into Canada. The RCMP file languished for several years until Read took it over.
Frustrated at being stymied by bureaucrats and concerned that no one was addressing evidence of possible wrongdoing by mission employees, Read took his case to Vancouver Province news editor Fabian Dawson in August 1999.
Read told Dawson that he was ignoring written orders from his boss not to talk to the media because “there needs to be a public inquiry into this whole thing.”
As a result of Read‘s expose, the RCMP fired him (see www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/5.html, or search for ‘Robert Read‘ on the Asian Pacific Post site).
Last year an RCMP oversight committee vindicated the officer for blowing the whistle on corruption concerns within the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong.
The committee said Read‘s disclosure “would still have to be regarded as a matter of legitimate public concern because it exposed the fact that the force had, for seven years, failed to take appropriate action to determine if employees of the mission had engaged in immigration fraud.“
The RCMP has refused to reinstate Read. Read is now taking his case to the Federal Court. “Read found out things that the government did not want to know about and when he took it to the Canadian public, he was fired,“ said McAdam, whose work in exposing the corruption was recently made into a Canadian documentary.
“It looks like what happened in the 90s in Hong Kong is happening again in China,“ said McAdam.
“This is shocking and we need to get to the bottom of this,” said Vernon Conservative MP Darrell Stinson, who wants the government to explain the extent of damage the security breach in China has caused.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2004 The Asian Pacific Post with all rights reserved. Reproduction of content permitted only if accompanied with attribution to The Asian Pacific Post and link to website, www.asianpacificpost.com.
