Two “Ghosts” are Charged with Immigration Fraud

Official news agency of the Canadian government released a brief communiqué from The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in Montreal on May 10, 2016.

This time the announcement was made about charges made against two individuals who were acting as paid immigration consultants without a licence.

Rejoinder Singh, who was arrested in Montreal, and Resham Singh will be appearing on June 9, 2016 at the Montreal court house facing charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and under the Criminal Code.

On top of being accused of having acted as paid immigration representatives, when in fact they were not authorized to do so, both accused men were charged with counselling wannabe immigrants to Canada to misrepresent information (read: “lie”) in their immigration applications and refugee protection claims, as well as forging and using counterfeit documents.

Benoît Chiquette, Regional Director General of the Quebec Region at CBSA, confirmed those perpetuating immigration fraud are indeed criminals, and assured the public that CBSA, indeed, goes after fraudulent consultants to bring them to justice, striving to remove a threat to the Canadian immigration system.

And, congratulations on doing so, finally, M. Chiquette and CBSA! I just hope that the charges stay, and victims of those scammers get at least some justice. My only remark would be about loose interpretation of the word ‘consultant’ that requires further clarification: it is authorized representatives as defined by IRPA, who are called “Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants” – those who are not ICCRC members are not “consultants” – calling them so would be tantamount to partaking in deceiving the public. They are “ghost agents” or commonly known as “ghosts” operating in the shadows, hiding their paper trail and often invisible to the often tired eyes of the immigration and justice systems. If someone is impersonating a lawyer – we do not call them “dishonest lawyer” (this is quite another pair of shoes, as my old neighbour would say) – they are a similar brand of criminals: fraudsters, scammers or still “ghosts”. Kudos to CBSA for kicking them in the light out of the shadows. The more educated general public is, the less it will be scammed.