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Opposition howls as Black is allowed back into Canada

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 05/2/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Conrad Black has been granted a one-year temporary resident permit. (CP)

OTTAWA -- The reported impending return of Conrad Black to Canada has sparked a heated exchange in the House of Commons over allegations of special treatment and double standards.

The disgraced media baron has been granted a one-year temporary resident permit by the Citizenship and Immigration department, according to media reports.

The Conservative government is not denying the claims.

"Matters such as this are a matter of personal privacy," Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told NDP Leader Tom Mulcair in the Commons, to boos and heckling from the opposition benches. "I cannot comment on specific cases without a privacy waiver."

Nonetheless, Kenney went on to describe his department's handling of Black's application, which he said came in February.

"Having said that, I can advise the House with respect to this individual, I indicated to my department that I would not have any involvement in an application from that individual, and that his application would be treated by highly trained, independent members of our public service," said Kenney.

The NDP leader raised the case of American Gary Freeman, who -- despite four decades of quiet life in Canada where he has raised a family -- has been denied a temporary resident permit because of 30-day sentence he served in Chicago in the 1960s.

"It is a clear case of a double standard, one for an American black man from Chicago, another for a British white man coming out of federal penitentiary in Chicago," said Mulcair, drawing cries of "shame!" from the government benches.

Kenney accused the NDP of trying to politicize immigration issues.

"We think the law should be consistently applied by independent, highly trained public servants, not by political demagogues," said the minister.

Citing sources, the Globe and Mail said Tuesday a one-year temporary resident permit granted Black is valid from early this month, when Black is freed from jail in Florida, until May next year.

The Supreme Court of Canada made the need for the permit clear earlier this month when handing down a ruling on an unrelated libel case. The decision specified that Black could not re-enter the country without "the special permission of the minister of citizenship and immigration."

Immigration lawyer Joel Sandaluk told The Canadian Press a temporary resident permit would be all the permission that's required, adding Kenney would not have to weigh in personally.

But Mulcair said the government needs to apply consistent standards, and if Freeman is ineligible to return because of a criminal record, so should be Black.

"It's quite clear that if you're an insider, you get one set of treatment," Mulcair said outside the Commons.

"By the way, Minister Kenney's never hesitated before to get involved in these files politically," he added, citing a Federal Court ruling that slammed Kenney's office over a refusal to permit rabble-rousing left-wing British politician George Galloway into Canada for a March 2009 speaking engagement.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 2, 2012 A8

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