Piotr Mazur was partially paralyzed in a devastating car crash in August 2004 in Manitoba.
He and his family, newly arrived Polish immigrants to Chicago, were holidaying in Canada when the incident occurred.
For more than two years, Piotr and his wife Lucyna, along with their young daughters Agnieszka and Anna, lived in Canada with no legal status and no health insurance.
The family said they had no one in America — or Poland — to turn to for help, if sent packing.
One story in a local Winnipeg newspaper triggered an outpouring of support.
The Polish community, MPs, church groups and even the cops, all pitched in to ensure the family was taken care of while dad’s medical bill was being picked up by the taxpayer.
It was a classic case of Canadian compassion.
However, Mazur's application to stay in Canada was denied and the family was ordered deported to Poland last year.
Then came the huge outcry to let the family stay on humanitarian grounds.
The Mazurs received permanent resident status last year after then-immigration minister Monte Solberg intervened.
When you juxtapose the Mazur case with the on-going Laibar Singh ruckus, one question comes to mind: Why the double standard?
Neither man had any legal status in Canada after their paralysis.
One gets to stay. The other is ordered to go.
The talk shows and websites reverberate with angry comments after Laibar Singh, the failed refugee claimant from India, took sanctuary in a Sikh temple to avoid being sent home.
The Indo-Canadian community has fanned the outcry in B.C. by twice stopping attempts to deport Singh who, like a majority of refugees, entered Canada on a false passport.
Now Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has blasted those Laibar supporters for resisting Ottawa’s deportation attempts, which have made his officers look like Keystone Cops.
"I would encourage those who are supporting somebody at a time like this to remember that those representatives gave their word and they asked for a time of reconsideration, and then the reconsiderations were given and at the risk of them being seen as people who do not keep their word, I would hope that they would respect that. We believe in the rule of law in our country," said Day.
Day went on to say that over 12,000 illegal people are being removed from Canada each year.
We find that hard to believe, given the number of high profile economic fugitives and gangsters who freely walk our streets after entering the country illegally.
You have Tong Sang Lai, the Macau mobster who calls Richmond his home after Canada bungled his immigration application and let him in. Also in Richmond you have the Chingkoes from The Philippines, who entered the country without telling Immigration Canada about their involvement in a massive tax fraud case.
China has been trying hard to get both a bunch of Bank of China executives and alleged smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing home to stand trial, but we will not give them up.
We have people in Canada running from the law from virtually every country in the world, but the only one we seem to be concerned about is a paralyzed refugee claimant, whose many supporters have agreed to foot his bill indefinitely.
Stockwell Day and his cronies on Parliament Hill need to realize that the ugly reaction in the Laibar Singh case is not so much about Laibar Singh.
It is about a dysfunctional immigration enforcement system that hides behind a curtain of privacy when questioned about its decisions and failures.
If Stockwell Day has time to spew such anger at Laibar Singh’s supporters, even question their honour, perhaps he can ratchet up the political action against some of the world’s most wanted who have made Canada their safe haven.
While we wait for that Day, Laibar Singh’s case should be heard in the court of compassion and common sense, not in an arena of racism and rhetoric.
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