in the line of duty: Canada's casualties
Last Updated September 17, 2009
Since 2002, 131 Canadian soldiers have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission. One diplomat and two aid workers have also been killed.
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Since 2002, 131 Canadian soldiers have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission. One diplomat and two aid workers have also been killed.
An Ajax man mistaken for an illegal immigrant and wrongly deported by Canada is finally home after spending three years in a birthplace he left as a 9-month-old baby.
"I'd lost hope that I'd ever be allowed to come back here," said Tavis Lamprell, 38, who was adopted at birth in Australia and arrived here with his parents in 1971 as a permanent resident. "There is just a rush of emotions right now. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm home."
In 2005, Lamprell was summoned by immigration officials for an interview at the Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre and slapped with a deportation order as a result of several criminal convictions, including an assault involving a girlfriend. The Canada Border Services Agency did not properly verify his immigration status before sending him to Australia in April 2006, separating him from his 12-year-old daughter.
By law, a permanent resident cannot be automatically deported as a result of a conviction, and is entitled to an admissibility hearing before an immigration judge and to be informed of appeal rights.
Lamprell claimed officials refused to look at his old Australian passport from 1971 with the "permanent resident" stamp on it and threatened to throw him in jail.
"I sold everything I had in Canada and left with two suitcases and a carry-on. I didn't know anyone there," recalled a teary Lamprell, who was deported to Sydney.
Lamprell, a roofer by training, had trouble putting bread on the table because his skills and experience working with asphalt and shingles didn't work in Australia, where builders use slates, concrete tiles and steel for roofing. He ended up working part-time as a furniture mover.
Meanwhile, Lamprell kept looking for a way back to Canada and enlisted the help of Toronto immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman through the Internet.
In March 2007, the Canadian Consulate General in Sydney acknowledged an error had been made and Lamprell had been deported by mistake.
Canadian officials told him he would have to apply for a temporary resident permit, authorization to return and to reapply for permanent residence upon his arrival in Canada. However, Waldman successfully asked the Federal Court of Canada to quash the deportation order, which automatically reinstated Lamprell's landed immigrant status.
Lamprell, who returned to Canada on Sept. 1 at the expense of the Canadian government, and his daughter Natasha have filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against the federal government for negligence in handling his deportation.
In its statement of defence, the government says, "At no time during the (deportation) interview did Lamprell ever indicate or suggest that he was a permanent resident, or that there was any error." It argues he has no right to damages because he didn't challenge the deportation order in a timely fashion.
Natasha, now 15, said she suffered depression after her father left. She was cared for in Canada by Lamprell's now ex-girlfriend.
"It was really hard ... I'd lived with my dad for eight years before he left," said Natasha, who spoke with her father by phone once a week and online over the last three years. "I'm just glad he's back."
OTTAWA–They say truth is the first casualty of war– and that goes for political wars, too.
As momentum builds toward another election campaign, so are the urban political myths. Here's a look at some of the most prominent mind-benders.
MYTH: An election would imperil economic recovery.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says an election would "screw up" the fragile economic recovery.
But that's not the view on Bay St. There, it elicits laughter.
"You believe that?" blurted Avery Shenfeld, senior analyst at CIBC World Markets.
National political campaigns are not a cause for concern on Bay Street, he said.
"We don't typically see a lot of financial market or business response to Canadian elections," which, Shenfeld noted, "don't tend to be revolutionary."
Few, if any, glaring differences exist between the Conservatives and the Liberals on key economic issues, observers note.
The Liberals supported the budget of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, above, that contained $35 billion over two years in stimulative spending. And, like the Harper government, the Liberals say that if elected they would tame the deficit without raising taxes or slashing federal transfers to the provinces.
"When you have both the Conservatives and Liberals in favour of corporate tax cuts and both sort of committed to the idea that deficits are a bad thing ... I don't really see how an election is of much consequence to the markets or to the economy," said United Steelworkers economist Erin Weir.
MYTH: The Liberals will wrest power from the Conservatives by joining in a coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.
Prime Minister Harper fuelled a backlash against his political opponents last winter by saying a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition – supported by the BQ – was an attempt to hijack the results of the Oct. 14 election. And the Conservatives are again reviving the coalition bogeyman.
"If we do not win a majority, this country will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists," Harper told party faithful recently.
But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who spurned the coalition idea after taking over last winter, continues to deny having any interest in it.
"Let me be very clear – the Liberal party would not agree to a coalition," he said yesterday.
"In January we did not support a coalition and we do not support a coalition today or tomorrow."
Canadians want a cooperative, well-functioning Parliament – not a Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the BQ, Ignatieff said.
"We know how to make Parliament work," he told reporters. "I'm favourable to compromise, I'm favourable to reaching out."
Nonetheless, a campaigning Harper can be expected to try to fan fears of a Liberal power grab joined with the NDP and BQ.
MYTH: A Liberal proposal to make it easier for laid-off workers to obtain Employment Insurance would be irresponsibly costly.
The Liberals want to ease employment insurance rules to help laid-off workers who cannot qualify for EI payments.
Reducing eligibility to 360 hours of work would allow another 150,000 to qualify for jobless benefits, the Liberals say, at a cost of $1.5 billion.
But the Conservatives have ridiculed that estimate, saying it would run up Ottawa's EI bill by a massive $4 billion annually.
Arguing that this tally by cabinet minister Diane Finley was vastly exaggerated, the Liberals asked Kevin Page, the independent parliamentary budget officer, to analyze their proposal.
Yesterday, Page estimated the 360-hour standard would have a $1.1 billion annual price tag.
Ignatieff said Page's analysis upheld Liberals' bookkeeping and showed the Conservatives' $4 billion tally was "completely false."
MYTH: An election will cheat Canadians out of their home renovation tax credit.
Harper and other Conservatives have raised the spectre that an election call could nullify the tax credit program for home renovations this year.
That's because the measure, though promoted widely, has yet to become law. Conservatives plan to introduce a ways and means motion soon for that purpose.
However, Liberals say they'll no longer support the minority government, meaning defeat of the Conservatives could come first.
Not to worry, Liberals say.
"We support the home renovation tax credit ... and will ensure Canadians are able to claim (it) in 2009 no matter what," spokesman Jean-François Del Torchio said.
Volvo Cars announced on Wednesday it planned to recall 26,000 cars worldwide because of faulty software which can lead to engine problems.
it's the electronic module which under certain circumstances does not work as it should. The engine doesn't start or just stops after 100 metres," Volvo spokeswoman Maria Bohlin told AFP.
"All customers will receive a letter informing them to go to a dealer and have the software updated," she added.
The cars concerned are the 2008-2010 models of the S80, V70, XC60, XC70 and S80L (sold only in China), which are equipped with a T6, or six cylinder, turbo-charged engine.
Of the 26,000 cars to be recalled, 12,000 are in the United States where the engine is "very common," Bohlin said, while there were "very few" in Europe.