June 23, 2012

• Report # 893

  Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a great start to the weekend. Today is looking a lot better than I thought. It's not really sunny, but it's definitely not cool and there is no rain so for a day that's cloudy I really can't complain. Yesterday I was totally fooled however. I got up to go to work and it was super nice and sunny. By the time I finished working though it had clouded over and it was raining a lot. I got pretty wet leaving work, but it wasn't that bad so I survived.

  I went to my Spanish class and I talked to Carlos lots and read more of my story. It's now 45 pages ! Next week I will tell Carlos that my final class will be on August 3. This will give him over a month to find a new student if he wants to find someone else. I'm thinking I will tell my work that I'm leaving around July 16... that will give them 3 weeks notice which is more than enough.

  After my class I headed home and arrived just before 9:00 pm. I called Dora and we talked for a few hours. It's always great to talk to her ! I talked with Dora and she has talked with some people she knows in Lázaro and there is a place there that helps people from other countries with work documents, so hopefully I can find something and be able to go there and have everything work out.

  Today I got up just before 10:00 am and then I just went for a run to Tim Hortons. Maybe I'll play tennis with Curtis sometime this weekend or see a movie, but I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet. Last month the government of Canada allowed Conrad Black to come into the country on a temporary one year visa. Conrad Black was a Canadian citizen, but he gave up his Canadian citizenship a number of years ago so he could become "Lord Conrad Black." In the British house of Lords... whatever the hell that is !

  Conrad Black was also a business man who owned many newspapers among other things, but eventually he was charged with Fraud and some other offences in the United States and he spent 3.5 years in a Florida prison. So just recently he was released for prison, and seeing as he was not a US citizen and was convicted of a crime, he was not able to stay in the United States. And he was a Canadian citizen, but he gave that up, so I don't think he should be allowed in Canada either.

  Personally I think he should just be shipped over to the UK to spend the rest of his life. He had a choice.... he didn't have to get rid of his Canadian citizenship, but he chose to because he was not permitted by the Canadian government to become Lord Black without giving up his citizenship. I am just disappointed when the Canadian government allows these type of people to come and live in the country despite their sketchy histories.

  There are so many super talented people from other countries who would love to come here and would bring so much to this country yet its so hard for them to come. For example, I have a friend from Venezuela, and she came to live in Calgary as a refugee a few years ago. She had done everything legally and had been given the green light to work while her case was being reviewed. Recently she told me that her refugee claim had been denied and that she is supposed to leave Canada in the near future.

  She has told me she is very scared and has put two years into her life to try and stay here and she really doesn't want to go back to Venezuela. Worse yet she told me the people reviewing her file think she is from Colombia. The people reviewing these files are government employees and they are supposed to be super professional and know exactly what they are doing. She has gone through all the correct processes and done interviews, and the immigration people think she's from Colombia. Are the people running these departments idiots ?

  If after all of this they don't even know correctly where a person is from in a case they should have reviewed, they clearly have no clue what they are doing and are a bunch of incompetent government hacks. And how one earth can the people in these departments be making decisions that truly effect the lives of individuals when they don't even know what country they are from ? Obviously the immigration system in Canada is a mess (though it's a mess in most countries) and it needs some thorough cleaning up. 

  If my friend has to go back to Venezuela I will be extremely disappointed in the people who are working in the immigration department. She is a great person who has come here with many skills and has worked hard from the start. She was tutoring Spanish in Calgary and she got a job working in a place that has lots of chocolates. She speaks great english and is working hard, while contributing to the economy. If she is forced to leave I will be thoroughly disgusted in the people making the decisions in this country.

  She told me her church pastor is going to go with her to some places to try and help her out and she does have a few options. I just wonder how many cases have been similar to hers and how many times the idiots working in these government departments have made such serious decisions such as whether a person can stay in Canada or has to leave, without really understanding the person, their story, or where they are from at all. 

  I realize that Canada can't just allow every single person who wants to live here in, as that will just bring in too many people and there would be labour shortages, but there are so many hard working dedicated people from many different countries around the world who would add so much with their presence here in Canada, and clearly more of them need to be given an opportunity.

  As long as the government is denying the requests of so many talented workers to come and live here, while allowing convicted criminals who have renounced their Canadian citizenship to come back into Canada..... there are some serious problems. I seriously hope my Venezuelan friend will be able to stay here because if not I will be filled with shame and disappointment at so many people and more thoughts that there is so much corruption and incompetence in the heads of the people working in the immigration departments.

  For the next question:

  Are you happy with the immigration system in your place, why or why not ?

  I will leave you all with some pictures from the beach at Los Mochis in Sinaloa. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 4:08 pm
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