Immigration Bond Controversy
On April 6, 2005, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Joe Volpe, asked the parliamentary Ethics Commissioner and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to investigate Grewal following his testimony to a parliamentary committee. In that testimony, Grewal had stated that he regularly asked those seeking his help in getting visitor visas for their relatives, if they would be willing to post bonds guaranteeing their return. Grewal contends that he was demonstrating that such immigration bonds could work as a way to prevent spurious refugee claims and illegal immigration. There is no evidence that any money was actually exchanged (or who would be paid should the bonds be called). On June 22, the ethics commissioner cleared him of these charges. He said the practice placed Grewal in an apparent conflict of interest, however, Grewal was making an honest mistake and never pocketed any money from the pledges.
Read more about this topic: Gurmant Grewal
Famous quotes containing the words immigration, bond and/or controversy:
“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one’s country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)