Jamie Sarkonak: Canada keeps asking non-citizen criminals to stop. They obviously don't |
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Jamie Sarkonak: Canada keeps asking non-citizen criminals to stop. They obviously don't
Immigration officials are sending 'stern warning letters' to criminal permanent residents, instead of deporting them. It doesn't work
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In 2017, a permanent resident of Canada named Mudasar Hussain was convicted of dealing drugs. Here was an opportunity to return him to his home country of Pakistan, but the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) didn’t take it: instead, it sent him a “stern warning letter” advising him that it wouldn’t take enforcement action if he stayed out of trouble — even though he was now considered inadmissible.
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This practice of asking non-citizen offenders to stop breaking the law, instead of simply deporting them, goes back to at least the 1990s.
Jamie Sarkonak: Canada keeps asking non-citizen criminals to stop. They obviously don't Back to video
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It’s not a strong deterrent, either: Hussain went on to commit more crimes, and removal proceedings resumed in 2022. Even that took forever: his deportation flight was scheduled for just this Monday. The Federal Court refused his last-ditch plea to remain in Canada earlier this month, but whether he actually left is a mystery. Federal officials firmly refuse to confirm whether deportations of criminals have taken place because privacy laws don’t expressly allow them to do so.
Hussain is not the kind of person we would want as a permanent resident. He came to Canada in 2005 at age 21 under the sponsorship of his brother. He entered an arranged marriage in Pakistan in 2009. He became addicted to drugs around 2011. He brought his wife to Canada in 2014; he was later convicted of domestic assault, landing him 15 months in prison. They separated and he moved to Vancouver, where he bounced from East Hastings Street to jail and back until his family placed him in rehab last summer.
He told the court he was now clean, and argued that deportation would set his recovery back. The judge didn’t buy it at all. It was the right result, but this was a conversation we should have been having in 2017. Thanks to that stern warning letter, which naturally went ignored, we’re having it 2026.
Court records show plenty more examples of this happening, usually when longtime permanent residents are convicted of a serious crime. In 2009, the immigration appeals tribunal decided the case of Karlene Alexander, a Jamaican woman with permanent residency who had accumulated some 65 convictions between 1986 and 2008 for matters including violence, fraud and drug dealing. The adjudicator noted that in 1992, 23 offences into her record, the woman received a stern warning letter indicating that officials weren’t going to pursue removal, but that could change if she didn’t stop.
“That letter apparently did not deter the appellant, as she continued to commit criminal offences,” wrote the adjudicator, who ultimately ruled in favour of deportation.
In 2011, the immigration appeals tribunal heard the case of Rodrigo Ibanez, a permanent resident from Chile who came to Canada as a toddler; he had joined a gang at age 12 and began racking up convictions shortly after turning 18. He was sent a stern warning letter in 1998, which did not dissuade him; indeed, it seemed to enable more bad behaviour: “During an investigation of a domestic assault, one of his ex-girlfriends asked police not to lay charges against him because of the threat of deportation he faced,” noted the adjudicator in 2011. By that time, his criminal record was described as “lengthy.” The tribunal decided against letting Ibanez stay.
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In 2020, Denys Ranyuk, a permanent resident from Ukraine, appealed a 2015 conviction for identity fraud (specifically, for using fake identification while being pulled over for drunk driving) because it was causing him immigration problems. His criminal record went back to 2006 and included fraud, dangerous driving and drunk driving; in 2015 he was also charged for his involvement in a fraudulent credit card scheme that lost retailers $150,000 in high-end merchandise.
Ranyuk got his stern warning letter from the CBSA in 2008. “We trust that you understand the gravity of this matter and we hope that we will not be required to contact you again regarding this matter,” it read. Little good that did. An Alberta King’s Bench judge upheld the 2015 conviction, though it’s not clear whether this has resulted in deportation.
All sorts of undesirable behaviour have been met with useless CBSA warning letters. Underage pimping? Stern warning letter. Theft over $5,000? Stern warning letter — followed by convictions including criminal harassment. Assault with a weapon? Stern warning letter — followed by another conviction for assault with a weapon.
Dangerous weapons charges? Stern warning letter. This was in 2004. The offender in question, Andre Telesford of Trinidad and Tobago, chose to drive in an illegal street race in Hamilton two years later. As he sped through an intersection, he hit a pedestrian who was crossing the street after watching a hockey game with his friends. The 21-year-old victim, Matthew Power, was torn in half. Telesford was supposed to be deported in 2010, but immigration authorities, with the ministry’s support, called it off in 2011. Deportation proceedings were resumed in 2014, but it’s unclear whether it was actually carried out.
Cocaine trafficking? Stern warning letter. That was in 2004. Chun Yip Ma of Hong Kong went on to commit identity theft in 2014 and was ordered deported the next year. The authorities don’t appear to have followed through, because he was mentioned during the trial of a Vancouver hitman accused of a 2020 murder. The court heard, in 2024, that Ma had allegedly been seen with the hitman prior to the murder, and that the two were in constant contact.
Back then, Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan noted that “While Crown and defence agree that Ma was likely involved in the conspiracy, they disagree on his purported role.” Ma was also charged with theft in March 2024.
Toothless warnings are only part of why Canada has a reputation for nonchalance towards crime. Non-citizens can also receive sentence discounts to lessen their chances of deportation in some cases, and the deportation process offers many opportunities for criminals to challenge, appeal and delay. The entire system tells outsiders that respect for our rules is optional, and that we’ll do what we can to excuse their bad behaviour. While they enjoy their third, fourth and fifth chances, we have to endure watching our once-high-trust society erode away.
While we don’t have a detailed breakdown of how many stern warning letters have been sent, and how many went ignored by people who went on to commit more crime, we ought to stop the practice entirely. The immigration system isn’t a rehab; it’s a filter that should be working to keep Canadians safe.
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