Refugee/Migrant Crisis

spaminator

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Our asylum system is being abused and needs to change fast
Canada's system for helping refugees is overrun and in need of an overhaul, will the Carney government act?


Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Published Aug 28, 2025 • 3 minute read

If all of the people waiting for their asylum claim to be heard right now were gathered in one place, they would form a city bigger than Kitchener, Regina or Burnaby. It’s just another example of the mess the Liberals have created with our once well-functioning and well-respected immigration and refugee system.


According to the latest government figures, there are 287,786 people waiting to have their asylum claim heard.


On Friday, ministers responsible for immigration in provincial governments across the country will have a virtual meeting with their federal counterpart Lena Metlege Diab. Fixing the asylum system, along with problems with the temporary foreign workers, reducing the number of permanent residents and dealing with illegal immigration are all topics on the table.

Getting a handle on the asylum system must be a priority because right now it is being abused, used as a backdoor into Canada, rather than a system to protect those fleeing war or persecution.

As one example, in 2015 we had just 16,592 asylum claims compared to 55,093 in the first six months of 2025 and 190,039 people claiming asylum last year. Back in 2015, the backlog for cases being heard was just 9,999, not close to 300,000.


Last year, we had 32,563 people claim asylum from India and almost 10,000 in the first six months of this year. India is a fellow democracy with a growing economy. It has challenges, yes, but we should not be seeing a small city of asylum claims from India.

The same holds true for Mexico, a NAFTA partner, a fellow democracy and a regular source of abuse for our asylum system.

In 2010, the Harper government brought in massive changes to the asylum system and Canada’s visa policy. In part it was to deal with false claims being made by people coming into Canada from places like Mexico and Hungary.

Those visa requirements for Mexican nationals effectively shut off the flow of thousands of people falsely claiming asylum from that country. In early 2016 though, the Trudeau government dropped that visa requirement and the flow is people coming north to claim asylum in Canada grew steadily until we saw 25,236 arrive in 2023.


New visa requirements were introduced in February 2024, yet we still saw more than 12,000 asylum claims last year from Mexico and 2,700 in the first six years of 2025.

Our system, meant to help real refugees, is clearly being abused. Just look at the 254 Americans who have claimed asylum so far this year.

The answer to this problem and the backlog isn’t to just speed up processing times. Though that is needed, we need to restructure our system.

Right now, we incentivize people to come to Canada and make fake claims by not having proper guardrails in place such as visa requirements. We incentivize people to come here through the asylum system because they know they can get a work permit and generous benefits, including health care, almost immediately.


Federal health coverage for asylum seekers cost roughly $60 million in 2016 but the government’s latest figures show a cost of $590,405,500 in fiscal year 2023-24.



The federal government has also spent billions on housing for asylum claimants over the past few years from hotel and motel rooms to rent subsidies. Costs also fall on municipalities such as Toronto where at times more than 50% of the city’s roughly 10,000 shelter beds have been occupied by asylum seekers.

The cost to the Ontario government, where one in four welfare recipients is an asylum seeker, is approximately $500 million per year.

The way the system is being run right now is not sustainable and needs to change. The question is whether the Liberals have the will power to change a system they believe is compassionate instead of flawed.
 

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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Grenadian refugee sentenced to 13 years for 'horrific' kidnapping, sex assault
Ironically, Keyron Moore came to Canada as a refugee in 2006 to escape gang violence in Grenada


Author of the article:Michele Mandel
Published Sep 05, 2025 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 4 minute read

She’s lucky to be alive – but she is still their captive.


On the night of Nov. 1, 2022, after meeting with a friend who had questions about bitcoin, she was heading back to her Porsche Macan parked in a plaza at Yonge St. and Steeles Ave. when a Kia SUV suddenly pulled up.


An armed man in an orange hoodie jumped out and grabbed her. As she screamed and fought, a Good Samaritan ran to her aid but was forced to back off when her kidnapper fired a gun in his direction.

“The sound is imprinted in my brain, in my ears, at random moments,” the woman, whose identity is protected, would later write in her victim impact statement.

“Look what you made me do,” he told her.

Never located and known during the trial only as “orange hoodie guy” or OHG, the kidnapper took her phone, changed her password and turned off her locating. To get her to stop screaming, he hit her in the head with his gun.


It would only get worse.



Driving the getaway car was Keyron Moore, who came to Canada as a refugee in 2006 from Grenada to – cue the irony – escape gang violence.

When they stopped for gas, OHG got out and Moore, also armed with a gun, got into the backseat and demanded oral sex.

“I told him I don’t want to do that. I told him that I’m cooperating,” the woman testified. “And then he said that if I don’t do it, he’ll shoot me, and I said that if he shoots me, then I can’t cooperate, and he won’t get anything. And then he says he doesn’t have to shoot me to kill me. He could just shoot me in my leg.”


After being duct taped and driven around for hours, Moore delivered her to a Barrie home where a chair and rope were waiting for her in the garage, as were three “kids” with “Toronto Jamaican” accents armed with a gun, a lighter, a screwdriver, a hammer – and a heroin needle.

They demanded $1 million in crypto.

They saw that she was Chinese and she drove a Porsche and so she had to have money.


They were prepared to torture her until she handed it over. And so they began.

“They burnt my hair, and they burnt the bottom of my feet,” she testified. “They hammered my feet and then they hammered my hands … they were bashing.”

She still bears the physical and emotional scars from her torture.

“The pain was intense,” she recalled. “The forceful impact on my knees, hands and feet has led to lingering joint pain, stiffness and sensitivity. The pressure and repeated blows may have caused nerve damage, leading to numbness, tingling and unpredictable pain in my extremities.”


Her kidnappers demanded she call people.

“They kept on asking me how much my life is worth,” she said.


To add to the horror, they ran a syringe along her body and up and down her arms and legs. They told her it was filled with heroin and they could kill her with one injection. They then stripped her naked while she was tied to the chair and stuffed a sock in her mouth.

All the while, Moore stood by and watched, smoking a joint.

When they all left for a few minutes – Moore to clean the car and the teens to smoke – she managed to loosen the ropes and ran for her life to a neighbour who called 911. After 12 harrowing hours, she was finally free.

Convicted in March of kidnapping with a firearm, forcible confinement, sexual assault with a firearm and reckless discharge of a firearm, Moore was recently sentenced to 13 years in prison for what Justice Michael Townsend called “the horrific, degrading, violent and disgusting acts” towards an innocent woman.

More than three years later, she is still hostage to what he put her through.

“I don’t go outside alone. The fear is too overwhelming. I feel like I have a target on my back, like someone is always watching, waiting for the right moment. My heart races at the thought of being approached, followed, or taken,” she said in her victim impact statement.

“Every time I see headlights in the dark, I feel like I am back in that moment. My body reacts before my mind can catch up. Panic sets in, my breath becomes shallow, and I feel like I am seconds away from being dragged away.”

mmandel@postmedia.com
 

spaminator

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Hezbollah, other terror groups actively fundraising in Canada: government report
Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is active in Canadian drug, stolen car trade, says new Department of Finance report

Author of the article:Bryan Passifiume
Published Sep 04, 2025 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read

Hamas will see the vote as an endorsement of their Oct. 7 terror attack and the tactics they use.
A Hamas flag was paraded at a pro-Palestinian protest in October 2023 in Toronto. Photo by Supplied /Toronto Sun
OTTAWA — Canada’s “open and accessible” financial sector is vulnerable to terror groups looking to finance their overseas operations, a new government report details.


The report, entitled 2025 Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks in Canada, was quietly released by the Department of Finance last week, indicating overseas terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah involved in Politically Motivated Violent Extremism (PVME) are actively raising funds in Canada.


“Several terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code in Canada that fall under the PMVE category, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Khalistani violent extremist groups Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation, have been observed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to receive financial support originating from Canada,” the report read.


“FINTRAC’s 2022 Operational Alert on Terrorist Activity Financing identified Hezbollah as the second most frequently identified international terrorist entity to receive outgoing Canadian funds.”

Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based terror organization largely involved in ongoing genocidal strikes against Israel.

Support of Hezbollah is strong in Canada — particularly within anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and far-left — with Hezbollah flags and banners commonly displayed at Toronto’s frequent anti-Israel intimidation rallies.



Vancouver-based terror group Samidoun has overt ties to both Hezbollah, with group leader Charlotte Kates making an appearance earlier this year at the funeral of exterminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.


Hezbollah has a long history of raising money through the international drug trade, including here in Canada, and uses Islamic money brokers called hawalas to transfer money overseas.

“Both Hamas and Hezbollah are known to use MSBs (money service businesses,) especially IVTS (Informal value transfer system) such as hawalas to move money across borders. Hezbollah, in particular, is known to use Lebanon’s banking sector to maintain their account holdings,” the report read.

“Hezbollah remains a highly active global player in the cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and captagon trades, with trafficking networks spanning Latin America, Canada, and the US,” the report read.

Hezbollah also uses trade in stolen and used cars to fund their terror.


“American officials have observed Hezbollah buying used cars in North America and shipping them for resale through jurisdictions …. after which proceeds are transported to Lebanon by way of couriers,” the report continued.

“The Port of Montréal is a known link where luxury vehicles are shipped to Lebanon, financially supporting Hezbollah.”

This week, the Toronto Sun reported government money meant for humanitarian causes in Gaza were instead ending up in the hands of Palestinian terror groups.

Casey Babb, an advisor to Secure Canada and Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow, described the report as another slap in the face to hard-working Canadians.

“There’s something especially heinous about terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah using Canada to generate revenue, which they’ll then turn around and use to kill Canadians,” he said.

“From car theft, to the drug trade, to hawala, to abuse and manipulation of our charities sector, Islamic and Khalistani terrorist groups are exploiting many finance generating pathways in this country to keep themselves afloat.

“More must be done to ensure these activities are prevented.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume