None of these disclaimers is any comfort to the remaining members of this Syrian family, now without a husband and father. It may be that none of the Canadian parties to this matter has a legal obligation to return the funds, but what of their ethical obligations? The Syrian family provided their life savings on the promise of residency in Canada. The application remained in limbo for six years – or eight if one starts with the original application back in 2008. Had the application been processed in a reasonable time frame the father would still be alive, and with his family here in this country.
It is one thing to apply the family’s $120,000 payment to the cost of financing the remainder of the funds required by the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program if, in fact, the family had been given the Canadian residency promised – or at least given an answer (positive or negative) without excessive delay. Since that did not happen, just what use was made, by whom, of the $400,000? It presumably became part of the revenues of the Quebec Ministry involved. On what moral grounds would the Ministry justify keeping these funds since it did not provide the service promised in return for the money? For a country that prides itself on its humane treatment of immigrants, this story – if it was accurately reported in the Toronto Star – does not do us any credit.