Much ado about fraudulent marriages

The Star online featured a report today built to play into the hands of anti-immigration extremists, reporting the...alarming fact that the CIC receives about 1,000 complaints a year of spouses/partners who come to Canada and immediately abandon their sponsors.

Of course, this is devastating to the sponsor emotionally, and can be a big problem financially, as the sponsor is on the hook for any government service fees the runaway partner racks up (like unemployment) for a three year period.

The story features takes from a number of jilted Canadians and it really is sad to read how their hearts were broken by those they loved and trusted.

However...let's add a little context here if I may. There are around 45,000 family class permanent resident visas issued each year to spouses/partners. The 1,000 alleged cases of abandonment only represent 2% of that number. Of the entire annual number of immigrants, it only represents around 4/10 of 1%.

It's hard to categorize those numbers as some epidemic of immigration abuse.

But it plays well with Conservatives.

Read the entire article here