Pierre Trudeau famously said that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, but Jason Kenney, the Energizer bunny of federal ministers, sees things differently.
In his determination to tweak the immigration system from top to bottom, he's now set his sights, if not on our bedrooms, on at least our family relationships.
In the fall of 2010, CIC began public consultations on marriages of convenience through online questionnaire and town hall meetings held in Montreal, Brampton, and Vancouver.
The online questionnaires attracted 2,430 responses, of which 11 per cent identified themselves as victims of marriage fraud and 77 per cent of the respondents thought that marriage fraud was a very serious or serious threat to Canada's immigration system. Seventy-seven per cent also thought that there was a strong need for more public awareness and education about marriages of convenience.
Seventy-seven per cent sends a pretty strong message. I was surprised to find that marriages of convenience are such a huge concern to Canadians, even if respondents were influenced by the CIC backgrounder they were asked to read before answering the online questionnaire.
I thought that might have been a factor, because the solutions that Canadians suggested - sponsorship bars and conditional visas - were also prominently featured in the background document, describing measures that had been adopted by countries like Australia and New Zealand.
One of those changes, the sponsorship bar, has already been made law. A person who came to Canada under the Family Class as a sponsored spouse, common-law, or conjugal partner can't sponsor a new spouse, etc. for at least five years after they become permanent residents. The other suggested change, a conditional visa for sponsored spouses, is also poised to become law.
It was published in the Canada Gazette on March 9 and will be added to the regulations as soon as the period for public comment has expired - unless there is an outcry from the public forcing CIC to rethink the policy.
Briefly, unless the relationship lasts two years, permanent residence will be revoked and the sponsored partner deported.
There was a lot of concern that vulnerable women, or men, would be forced to endure abusive relationships for two years in order to be able to stay in Canada, but to Kenney's credit, there are exemptions from the two year requirement in cases of spousal abuse - physical, sexual, psychological or financial - or neglect.
Couples who have already been together for two years before applying or who have a child together are also exempt.
The practical, psychological and financial effects of being the victim of a fraudulent marriage are devastating and I'm not downplaying them.
For example, did you know that a sponsor makes a binding contract with CIC to take care of the sponsored partner financially for three years after they land?
Even if a fraudster dumped his or her spouse the day after arriving in Canada and goes straight onto welfare, the sponsor would be required to repay the government for the full three years.
The fact that the sponsor is already a victim is "no excuse" in CIC's eyes.
Some people think that those who fall into a fraudulent marriage have no one to blame but themselves.
"How," they ask, "could you not see that you were being manipulated?"
Truth be told, there are often warning signs such as incessant demands for money or gaping differences in social background or even attractiveness that is too big to wish away. But love is a complex emotion and the saying "love is blind" endures for good reason.
Still, CIC always responds to complex human situations with regulations, processes, systems, and numbers.
Is five years too long for someone to have to wait before they can get on with their lives if a relationship has fallen apart, despite the best efforts of both partners?
Is being "sentenced" to two years in a dysfunctional relationship cruel and unusual punishment?
Only time will tell whether the new regulations have struck the right balance.
What do you think?
Dr. Joe Greenholtz is a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) and a director of the Premier Canadian Immigration Co-op.
