RCMP arrested five people Thursday, including the operations manager of Ottawa's immigration office. They are accused in a conspiracy that targeted Arabs seeking to become landed immigrants.
- FROM DEC. 16, 2004: Charges laid in alleged immigration extortion plot
Riad Saloojee, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada, said foreigners would find it hard to say no to a demand for cash from an official who controls their fate.
"Many Arabs and Muslims chose to immigrate to Canada precisely because it has a very transparent, fair, accountable system. So if this is the first experience, it's going to be a tremendous shock," he said.
Saloojee said the charges appear to involve squeezing money out of immigrants who feared their visa applications might be rejected because of a distrust of Arab non-citizens.
He said trust in the immigration system is at a low, and this incident will only increase Arabs' feeling of persecution.
According to the RCMP, dozens of immigrants were approached and agreed to pay between $4,000 and $25,000 to secure their permanent residency.
"The charges are very serious," said RCMP Cpl. Nathalie Deschenes. "We have people that obtained residency illegally. So this is very serious."
There is no evidence any of the immigrants is considered a security threat.
No guarantee visas won't be withdrawn
One of the five accused is Diane Serre, 34, the operations manager in Ottawa who oversees between 10 and 15 people, according to Immigration spokesman Doug Kellam.
Kellam said the department was shocked to learn of the charges against the supervisor, and by the RCMP search warrant executed at its offices Thursday.
The department has no intention of paying back the money, he said.
"If they paid money that was in the form of a bribe. That certainly wouldn't be the responsibility of Citizenship and Immigration to repay the money. That would be a criminal matter," Kellam said.
He said Immigration Canada will review all the cases, but there is no guarantee the immigrants will be allowed to keep the status they paid for.
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