Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Most wanted

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, July 29, 2011 10:47am - 18 Comments

Jason Kenney talks to the Post about his most-wanted list.

Back in 2003, the Liberals considered releasing a similar wanted list but decided not to. They said they were concerned about privacy and vigilantism. Why did your government go ahead with this now?

“I read about that. If indeed they took that position I think it was bizarre and irresponsible. The notion that a foreigner who illegally enters Canada, has been found by our legal system to be involved in the worst kinds of crimes possible, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, who is under a deportation order and a warrant — the notion that such an individual enjoys the same privacy rights as a law abiding Canadian citizen is bizarre in the extreme. And the fact that people are concerned about this just shows the kind of ideological process obsession that some people have that overrides any consideration for the public interest or the integrity of our immigration system. So when this came to light, that we were not seeking the cooperation of the public, Minister Toews and I realized that this was a mistaken approach and that we had no privacy obligation to these individuals under the principles of both consistent use of information and public interest. And under the Privacy Act, we felt there were entirely reasonable grounds to release this information.”

Chris Selley notes that the word “alleged” should be applied to these individuals. One person is threatening to sue. Another is claiming innocence.

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  • Anonymous

    ‘the notion that such an individual enjoys the same privacy rights as a law abiding Canadian citizen is bizarre in the extreme.’

    No, Jason….actually it’s in our constitution.

    • Anonymous

      Or, in the immortal words of Ezra Levant: It’s the Stupid Charter.

      • Anonymous

        Yes, stunning to me that a political party in Canada would oppose a charter of rights, but apparently we have one.

  • TonyAdams

    I wondered why our left wing msm was getting their knickers in a twist about this and making snide comments about catching criminals and now it makes more sense.

    Left wing types hate it when the little platoons do their work and improve the community – plebes can’t be trusted, don’t you know – and only State is allowed to arrest criminals. 

    Edmund Burke ~ To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.

    • Anonymous

      Or as heard on Sun-TV  -  are you  sure you really know who your neighbours are?  I can deal with these things but I’m worried about Mademoiselle K (my dog).  If the little platoons take it upon themselves to investigate me and intrude on my property, I sure hope they can deal with a rottie.

  • Anonymous

    If they have any more of these photo-op, press conferences,  they may be eligible for summer theatre funding. 

  • Anonymous

    I wasn’t aware our immigration system had any integrity.

  • Anonymous

    If the comments on various media website are any indication – this is the most popular project in Canada right now.   Most posted comment:  “Go Jason go!!”

    Critics fear this is whipping up anti-immigrant hysteria.“I think that’s patently ridiculous. To the contrary, we’ve received nothing but a phenomenally positive response from new Canadians in general. And the evidence of that is most of the useful tips coming from the public are generated from cultural communities in which these people have been situated in Canada. So we thank members of those communities for their cooperation. New Canadians understand what perhaps some of the left-wing NGOs don’t, which is that in order to maintain public support for the most generous refugee system in the world we must constantly demonstrate that there are fair rules which are consistently enforced. And so we are, in fact, defending public support for Canada’s generous immigration and refugee programs by taking action against people who do not belong in Canada.”

    • Anonymous

      None of which has anything to do with the question at hand.

    • Anonymous

      “Fair rules which are consistently enforced” – I would imagine that New Canadians understand that we have rules regarding the presumption of innocence.

      • Anonymous

        “Every single individual on the list was found to be inadmissible to Canada under Section 35 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, meaning that a Canadian tribunal determined that there was reason to believe that they had been involved in such crimes as crimes against humanity and war crimes, and that they were excluded from access to Canada’s asylum system under section 1.F.a. of the 1951 Convention on Refugees. Most of these individuals challenged that determination at the Federal Court. They also received the benefit of pre-removal risk assessments and various other legal decisions. They’re only on this list because these legal determinations were made in Canada, their defence was not accepted and they’ve been evading deportation. So I have no doubt that all 30 people on the list would pretend to be as pure as the driven snow but our legal system has found otherwise.”

        • Anonymous

          Which is exactly why we should capture and deport all of these men.

          However, branding them “war criminals” in public without any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes, and without being willing to discuss in public what evidence there is that they’re actually war criminals just muddies the waters imho, and will make it HARDER, not easier, to get rid of them.  I’m sure the idea was to rally support from the public to help round these guys up (and also to give the Tories a chance to look really tough).  However, all I think it will really do is make some judge somewhere say, at some point, “Yes, he’s here illegally, and yes he should be deported, but now he’s been publicly branded a war criminal by the government of Canada, and if he wants to fight that allegation we need to let him stay in the country and have an opportunity to clear his name.  We can’t just publicly accuse him of war crimes based on unknown evidence from secret immigration hearings and then ship him back home”.  Hopefully that won’t happen, but so publicly branding them all “war criminals” based on evidence that can’t be shared with the public, and absent any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes charges just makes the whole process unnecessarily complicated as far as I’m concerned.

          Why not just announce to the country “Here are 30 men who are here illegally and we need the public’s help tracking them down so we can deport them”?  I suspect because that doesn’t make as exciting a press conference, nor does it give the government the chance to look like they’re fighting war crimes.  But they’re NOT fighting war crimes.  None of these men have been charged with war crimes as far as we know, and there’s no indication that any of them ever will be.  What happens several years from now when people ask “What ever happened to all those war criminals you rounded up?” and the government has to answer “Nothing.  They were never actually charged with anything beyond being here illegally.  We just sent them all home.”  The problem isn’t just that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should kick them out of Canada, the problem, as I see it, is that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should be doing MORE than just kicking them out of Canada.

        • Anonymous

          Which is exactly why we should capture and deport all of these men.

          However, branding them “war criminals” in public without any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes, and without being willing to discuss in public what evidence there is that they’re actually war criminals just muddies the waters imho, and will make it HARDER, not easier, to get rid of them.  I’m sure the idea was to rally support from the public to help round these guys up (and also to give the Tories a chance to look really tough).  However, all I think it will really do is make some judge somewhere say, at some point, “Yes, he’s here illegally, and yes he should be deported, but now he’s been publicly branded a war criminal by the government of Canada, and if he wants to fight that allegation we need to let him stay in the country and have an opportunity to clear his name.  We can’t just publicly accuse him of war crimes based on unknown evidence from secret immigration hearings and then ship him back home”.  Hopefully that won’t happen, but so publicly branding them all “war criminals” based on evidence that can’t be shared with the public, and absent any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes charges just makes the whole process unnecessarily complicated as far as I’m concerned.

          Why not just announce to the country “Here are 30 men who are here illegally and we need the public’s help tracking them down so we can deport them”?  I suspect because that doesn’t make as exciting a press conference, nor does it give the government the chance to look like they’re fighting war crimes.  But they’re NOT fighting war crimes.  None of these men have been charged with war crimes as far as we know, and there’s no indication that any of them ever will be.  What happens several years from now when people ask “What ever happened to all those war criminals you rounded up?” and the government has to answer “Nothing.  They were never actually charged with anything beyond being here illegally.  We just sent them all home.”  The problem isn’t just that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should kick them out of Canada, the problem, as I see it, is that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should be doing MORE than just kicking them out of Canada.

        • Anonymous

          Which is exactly why we should capture and deport all of these men.

          However, branding them “war criminals” in public without any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes, and without being willing to discuss in public what evidence there is that they’re actually war criminals just muddies the waters imho, and will make it HARDER, not easier, to get rid of them.  I’m sure the idea was to rally support from the public to help round these guys up (and also to give the Tories a chance to look really tough).  However, all I think it will really do is make some judge somewhere say, at some point, “Yes, he’s here illegally, and yes he should be deported, but now he’s been publicly branded a war criminal by the government of Canada, and if he wants to fight that allegation we need to let him stay in the country and have an opportunity to clear his name.  We can’t just publicly accuse him of war crimes based on unknown evidence from secret immigration hearings and then ship him back home”.  Hopefully that won’t happen, but so publicly branding them all “war criminals” based on evidence that can’t be shared with the public, and absent any international warrants for their arrest on war crimes charges just makes the whole process unnecessarily complicated as far as I’m concerned.

          Why not just announce to the country “Here are 30 men who are here illegally and we need the public’s help tracking them down so we can deport them”?  I suspect because that doesn’t make as exciting a press conference, nor does it give the government the chance to look like they’re fighting war crimes.  But they’re NOT fighting war crimes.  None of these men have been charged with war crimes as far as we know, and there’s no indication that any of them ever will be.  What happens several years from now when people ask “What ever happened to all those war criminals you rounded up?” and the government has to answer “Nothing.  They were never actually charged with anything beyond being here illegally.  We just sent them all home.”  The problem isn’t just that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should kick them out of Canada, the problem, as I see it, is that if they’re suspected of war crimes we should be doing MORE than just kicking them out of Canada.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4465WSJ36YDGXAJZUXDNIM64M4 Dan

    From what I’ve seen the government has been very consistent in refering to them as being suspected of war crimes or complicity in war crimes.

    Some media organizations like the Sun have just thrown up a “War Criminal” banner under the photo of someone on the list despite the fact that the government has never accused any of them of being actual war criminals.

    It’s no the government’s fault if some media organziations aren’t smart enough to understand what the government is actually saying.  If that fellow wants to actually win a lwasuit he should sue the media outlets who made the accusations, not the government and taxpayers.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4465WSJ36YDGXAJZUXDNIM64M4 Dan

    From what I’ve seen the government has been very consistent in refering to them as being suspected of war crimes or complicity in war crimes.

    Some media organizations like the Sun have just thrown up a “War Criminal” banner under the photo of someone on the list despite the fact that the government has never accused any of them of being actual war criminals.

    It’s no the government’s fault if some media organziations aren’t smart enough to understand what the government is actually saying.  If that fellow wants to actually win a lwasuit he should sue the media outlets who made the accusations, not the government and taxpayers.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4465WSJ36YDGXAJZUXDNIM64M4 Dan

    From what I’ve seen the government has been very consistent in refering to them as being suspected of war crimes or complicity in war crimes.

    Some media organizations like the Sun have just thrown up a “War Criminal” banner under the photo of someone on the list despite the fact that the government has never accused any of them of being actual war criminals.

    It’s no the government’s fault if some media organziations aren’t smart enough to understand what the government is actually saying.  If that fellow wants to actually win a lwasuit he should sue the media outlets who made the accusations, not the government and taxpayers.

  • Anonymous

    And the fact that people are concerned about this just shows the kind of ideological process obsession that some people have that overrides any consideration for the public interest

    Mind sending that memo over to Tony Clement?

    Oh wait.. too late.

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