Here we go again.
Another scandal at a Canadian diplomatic mission.
Another round of "we cannot confirm or deny any investigation"
And another bout of damage control where your tax dollars will be used to prep ministers to provide vague answers in Parliament while Ottawa's public relations machinery goes into high gear to minimize the fallout.
Judging by the track record of Immigration Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs, a witch hunt will probably be conducted to find out who leaked the information.
That will likely be followed by a watered down blinkered investigation, probably by some outsider hired at great expense, which will conclude that the case is not as bad as it is made out to be.
The incident in China, related on our front page, is not an isolated case.
In fact, these types of visa frauds are happening with alarming regularity at Canadian diplomatic missions all over the world.
The problem is systemic.
But instead of pouring resources to ensure the integrity of our immigration system, Ottawa will be using much-needed money to ensure its image is not sullied by whistleblowers.
In the latest case, we have word that a high ranking employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs has resigned suddenly after suspicions that he was lining his pockets with bribes from Chinese nationals seeking visas to enter Canada.
But policy dictates that you, the taxpayer cannot know about this security breach.
Here is some of what the government will not tell you:
It will not tell you there is an investigation into a visa racket at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.
It will not tell you if any of those who slipped into the country have been detected and deported.
It will not tell what it is doing about this breach to stop it from happening again.
And it will not tell you what it has done, if anything, with the suspect.
Hiding behind privacy legislation, the basic message to Canadians is that anything of this sort is none of your business.
The last time something of this magnitude occurred at a Canadian diplomatic mission in the Far East, two brave souls-รข?"RCMP Corp. Robert Read and former Foreign Service officer Brian McAdam--who blew the whistle on the corrupt practices paid for it with their careers.
The case was kept hidden from the public eye for seven years before the duo went public.
Even after a Parliamentary oversight committee said Read was right in taking his case public, the cop can't get his job back.
Immigration Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs want you to believe that they have plugged the holes and are containing the security breaches.
Unfortunately, the bribery, fraud and theft at Canada's overseas missions paint a different picture.
From Syria to Hong Kong to Pakistan and India hundreds of cases of visa thefts and frauds, some linked to organised crime have been detected.
There have been smuggling rings operating in the Ukraine that had infiltrated the Canadian Embassy in Kiev while extensive corruption has been found at the mission in Iran.
If Ottawa wants the public to believe that it is fixing the problems perhaps it should start acknowledging they exist.
