By Lucy-Claires Saunders

With an increasing number of foreigners coming to Canada through marriages of convenience and then dumping their partners, Ottawa is focusing its attention on training officials to spot fraud before it’s too late.

The Conservative government has sent clandestine teams to several foreign countries to spy on phony brides and grooms and bogus marriages designed to dupe Canadian immigration officials, according to the Globe and Mail.

Without identifying the target countries to which the wedding spies are being dispatched, government officials told theGlobe they will collect information about fake marriages and phony photo shoots staged to get a visa, and send it to Canadian visa offices in those countries.

However, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) spokesperson Douglas Kellam says The Globe and Mail article is inaccurate.

"There are no "clandestine teams" that have been deployed to deal with the subject of marriages of convenience," he said. "There are no plans to do so either."

Instead, Kellam said CIC is looking at additional training on investigation and interview techniques for its officers posted around the world. Visa officials are also being trained to ask more probing questions of the couples seeking a life together in Canada.

Immigrant communities that seek matrimonial alliances in their native countries, particularly in India, have been the major victims of sham marriages.

Under the current immigration system, someone in India can come to Canada within six months after marrying a Canadian, while others wait up to six years.

There have been cases where newly arrived brides and grooms, particularly from Punjab, have dumped their spouses on landing and disappeared from the airport.

Married Indo-Canadian men have gone to Punjab to dupe foreign-crazed families into marrying off their daughters with a huge dowry. There have even been instances where people have entered into incestuous marriages on paper to bring their siblings to Canada.

Some are so desperate to move to Canada, they will keep their marriages in their home country a secret, forge documents and dream up imaginary deaths, such as in the recent case of Kamal Laroche, also known as Kamaljit Singh Gill and Kamal Jit Singh Gil.

In April, Laroche was stripped of his citizenship and ordered to leave Canada for entering into a fraudulent marriage with a Canadian and providing fake documents.

Laroche, who lives in B.C., claims that during an interview conducted by CIC, he was never asked whether he had a child in India. However, the Record of Landing signed by him clearly states that he has no dependent relatives. Had authorities known he had a daughter who lived in India, they would have also known that he had a wife in India and therefore could not legally marry a Canadian woman.

"He circumvented the proper functioning of the immigration system," said the summary judgment. "(He) obtained his permanent residency and subsequently his Canadian citizenship, through false representations."

To convince immigration officers that his Canadian marriage was valid, Laroche provided a fake death certificate for an imagined husband of his Indian wife, a false marriage certificate, and fraudulent birth certificates for the two children indicating that the deceased ‘husband’ was the children’s father.

However, during his Canadian marriage, Laroche maintained a relationship with his homeland wife, speaking to her every other day on the phone and regularly sending money to his family in India. During one of his regular visits, he produced a son with the woman in 1997.

Faith St.John, spokesperson for the Canadian Border Services Agency, could not speak specifically about Laroche due to privacy laws but did say immigrants providing officers with false information or withholding information directly relevant to their legal status in Canada can be ordered to leave.

"If we believe someone has misrepresented themselves, for whatever reason, we will do an investigation," she said.

Someone like Laroche will have several chances to appeal his deportation on various grounds, including the claim that going back home may be an endangerment to his life.

CBSA does not keep records on the number of bogus marriages that end in deportation. But last year, CBSA removed over 12,000 individuals, including 2,000 criminals,according to St.John.

However, at the same time CBSA has lost track of more than 40,000 people who have been ordered out of the country, according to Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

Like Laroche’s Canadian wife, there are thousands of victims of sham marriages in B.C., where the majority of Indo-Canadians, mostly Punjabis, live.

CIC Minister Diane Finley has sought cooperation from the provincial government to remind Canadians that they are financially responsible for their new husbands or wives, even if they seperate and their spouses apply for social assistance.

Some see Finley’s comments as a reminder that the Federal government is unable or unwilling to improve a sponsorship program that places the onus of responsibility solely on the sponsor.

After eight years of protesting, pleading, and praying, Shajila Singh finally rid herself of her abusive husband. His departing gift was $50,000 in welfare debt.

Under federal rules, a sponsor is responsible for all debts racked up by a spouse — or ex-spouse — from all assistance programs from all levels of government.

"The fact that Ms. Finley has asked the B.C. Government to co-operate means the Canadian Government is unable to improve an outdated system," she wrote in an e-mail.

Singh is hopeful that the renewed sense of urgency behind rooting out sham marriages will produce results, but believes the government should do more at home: "The government must use resources to collect relevant data, hold round table discussions where victims, councilors, community workers and MLAs, who are already involved, can provide valuable insight so the government may learn about the many tricks and schemes of marriage fraud."