Juno News - March 08, 2020


More evidence of Canada’s weak border policy


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

142.97487

Word Count

694

Sentence Count

38


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.320 Just in case you needed more evidence that Canada is weak on border policy, I've got
00:00:10.000 a story to tell you today.
00:00:11.640 Oolean Lee, a 54-year-old resident of Port Coquitlam, BC, was set to be deported from
00:00:17.680 Canada for having falsified her permanent residency application.
00:00:22.360 The Canadian Border Services Agency, the CBSA, discovered Lee's husband had lied about his
00:00:28.400 employment status and residence in Canada, and that Lee had lied about her travel history
00:00:33.580 and dates of residence in Canada.
00:00:36.040 Lee first came to this country in 2005, but left after a month, then came back in 2007,
00:00:43.060 and not before long, again went back to China.
00:00:45.880 She came back in 2013, and at that point in 2013, she apparently, according to this article,
00:00:51.960 began collecting a pension.
00:00:53.760 Now, if she is 54 in 2020, that would have made her 47 years old in 2013, and I'm not
00:01:00.300 sure 47-year-olds can collect pensions, correct me if I'm wrong.
00:01:04.800 So I think something has gone awry here.
00:01:07.360 But aside from that, clearly, Lee and her husband had not spent enough time in Canada to qualify
00:01:12.820 for permanent residency.
00:01:14.600 So they decided to purchase fraudulent documents from NUCAN Consultants Limited.
00:01:20.760 Now, let me tell you a bit about NUCAN Consultants.
00:01:23.960 Sonny Wang was the man behind this immigration consulting company.
00:01:28.760 And Sonny Wang, with this company, ran the biggest immigration scam in Canadian history.
00:01:35.160 Wang advertised his consulting services in Chinese-language newspapers.
00:01:40.120 The service he offered was falsifying documents for wealthy Chinese nationals who wanted permanent
00:01:45.800 residency in Canada, but hadn't spent enough time here to qualify, so they buy fake documents.
00:01:52.040 Wang and his company, NUCAN, which had over a dozen employees, affixed fake stamps to client
00:01:58.760 passports, falsely inflated the time spent in Canada on applications, provided falsified addresses
00:02:05.720 and phone numbers, and provided fake proof of employment with Wang's various shell companies.
00:02:11.800 Wang made over $10 million from 1,200 clients before he was caught in 2014.
00:02:18.920 CBSA officials became suspicious that over 100 people were claiming to live at the same
00:02:25.400 single-family dwelling in Richmond, BC, because Wang would use the same couple of addresses on
00:02:30.280 the falsified documents.
00:02:31.560 So officials raided Wang's house, and he was actually caught red-handed with photocopied
00:02:36.840 Chinese passports in his hands. Wang received a seven-year prison sentence in October 2014,
00:02:43.480 as he pleaded guilty to illegal immigration consulting, fraud, and tax evasion. Because,
00:02:49.160 oh yeah, he had also failed to report $2.7 million of income between 2007 and 2012, resulting in the
00:02:57.960 evasion of about $730,000 in income tax. So aside from his prison sentence of seven years,
00:03:06.040 he also had to pay two fines. The money he owed the CRA, the $730,000 for tax evasion,
00:03:12.520 and about $188,000 for defrauding the federal government. So in total, he had to pay about $920,000.
00:03:20.840 But in 2018, he was released from prison early on parole, even though he had not paid his $920,000 fine.
00:03:29.800 So back to Wu Lian Li, the 54-year-old woman from Port Coquitlam who used the services of Sunny Wang.
00:03:38.040 Her deportation order has been halted as the Immigration Appeals Division found that there were
00:03:43.400 compassionate and humanitarian reasons to keep Li in the country. So what are those grounds? Well,
00:03:49.480 firstly, she apologized. She said sorry. And secondly, she is a grandma now who provides free housework for
00:03:57.800 her son and his wife. And her son and his wife would have a really hard time if they didn't have
00:04:04.040 her around. Yes, that is the reason. Now, I'm all for keeping families intact, but let's see this for
00:04:11.080 what it is. You can lie to Canadian border officials, defraud our immigration system, undermine our
00:04:17.080 immigration system, and apparently collect benefits and a pension despite only living in this country for
00:04:23.240 a couple of months. So look, all I can say is that so far, it's been a good deal for Li. And for the
00:04:29.320 rest of us, well, we've got one more example of Canadian border policy being pretty much a total joke.
00:04:35.400 I'm Lindsay Shepard, investigative journalism fellow with True North.
00:04:39.160 Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in next week's video.