Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Staying Behind

We're learning more about the loyalties of the Canadian citizens of convenience in Lebanon with each passing day.

Recent media reports would have you believe that tens of thousands of dual citizens are all lined up at the docks waiting for the ship to carry them to Canada.

Apparently most of them are standing by Lebanon in its time of need. Which makes you wonder just why they're even holding on to Canadian citizenship in the first place:

Fewer than one quarter of the Canadians registered with their embassy in Lebanon have taken up the government's offer to get them out of the war-torn country, as officials say dwindling numbers mean the evacuation is winding down.

By late yesterday afternoon, after five days of exodus, slightly more than 7,900 people had boarded ships chartered by Canada to take them to safety. Only 2,800 of that number had actually reached Canadian soil, leaving thousands of evacuees in transit on ships headed for Turkey or Cyprus, on the ground there, or on airplanes headed to Canada.

There are more than 38,000 people registered with the Canadian embassy in Beirut. While Foreign Affairs representatives refused to say publicly how many of that total they believe to be tourists and how many have settled permanently in Lebanon, one official estimated yesterday that the temporary visitors account for about 20 per cent of the total.


The good news is they're not demanding a free ride out of danger on the Canadian taxpayers' dime.

The bad news is that the media will inevitably complain that Canada abandoned these people, even though they had no intention of leaving.

The worse news is that some of them will likely be discovered to be Hezbollah militants and supporters.

But at least they have made it clear where their loyalties lie, without doubt.

Source: Globe and Mail

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Some" will be found to be terrorists or terrorist supporters? The truth, were real canadians allowed to know it, would be shocking to all. Perhaps even causing a demand for the end of dual citzenships(citizens of convenience).
My real question is this, though. What do the Brits know that our government does not, or chooses to ignore. Shouldn't those being brought into canada be screened for security purposes? These citizens of convenience certainly were not screened at entry. Remember that canada has no illegal immigrants. These are all immediately shunted to the file called refugee, and their suitability for entry is determined in large part by citizenship commissioners who are not canadian, but immigrants themselves.
We really should be taking a page from the Brits policy manual on this one!