Crooked in Canada

It seems ex-KGB spy Mikhail  Lennikov’s 17-year-old Dmitri has quite the loyal girlfriend in Nazampal Jaswal and she is going out of her way to help her boyfriend and his family to avoid deportation. How sweet of her.

Yesterday Jaswal left a comment after reading an article about her boyfriend’s father in Crooked in Canada. The comment was in reference to a former senior ex-KGB agent who in four months time unless he convinces Canadian immigration officials otherwise, will be deported back to Russia where he claims he will imprisoned for treason and tortured.

Jaswal who happens to be a student of the Amnesty International Club took upon herself to come to Lennikov’s defence in Crooked in Canada, but CG is laughing it off, suggesting that Jaswal think before she speaks in Crooked in Canada next time around. In other words I am suggesting that Jaswal present her argument in a context that doesn’t candy coat the facts of the case, and maybe she should be a little less biased when it comes to her opinion about her boyfriend’s father’s deportation order and the events that led to that order. She is only listening to one side of the story, the story her boyfriend’s family is telling her and immigration authorities, unlike CG who has heard both sides now and still thinks he should be deported if only because he wasn’t honest and up front when he filed his immigration application in the first place. In other words he scammed his way into Canada and then went out of his way to hide certain aspects of his life in the Soviet Union because he knew if he didn’t he didn’t stand a chance of getting permanent residency status in Canada.

Jasway says in her comment that Lennikov was honest with Canadian immigration officials about his KGB past, but what she failed to mention was that it was after immigration officials had discovered that Lennikov had conveniently left out details of his KGB past when he filled out his immigration application.

Perhaps she made an honest mistake when she omitted that fact, or perhaps it was a deliberate attempt at minimizing the fact that Lennikov wasn’t exactly open and honest about his connection to the former Soviet Union spy agency when he applied for permanent residency, but whatever her reason was the 17-year-old Burnaby High School student, like Lennikov failed to disclose all the facts.

Interesting point of fact here and one something else that Jaswal fails to mention is that Canada does not normally grant permanent residency to former high-ranking members of spy agencies such as the KGB. She totally ignored that fact.

Another interesting point I would like to make is that for a scholarly individual such as Lennikov he would have known that Canada doesn’t grant permanent residency to former high-ranking spy agencies when he applied for permanent residency in the first place. As educated as he was I find it hard to believe that he didn’t know that, but he claims he didn’t.

Nazampal’s judgement is obviously clouded by her relationship with Lennikov’s son and her support for somebody who tried to put one over on immigration is self-serving. The last thing she wants is for her high school sweetheart to be deported to a country where he will be conscripted into the military.

I can’t say as I blame her but immigration policies and procedures are in place for a reason and Lennikov obviously failed to follow those procedures and policies, otherwise he wouldn’t find himself in the situation he and his family are facing today. He should be deported, but whether that happens in four months time or not remains to be seen. I don’t care one way or the other really, but I don’t think his case is any more special than Josip Budimcic’s case and as I am calling for Budimcic’s removal from Canada, I am calling for Lennikov’s removal from Canada too.

Ms. Jaswal, making sure she covers all the bases when it comes to her boyfriend has set up a Facebook account to save her boyfriend’s family from being deported four months from now, and she has become quite vocal in presenting her cause, in fact she has become of bit of celebrity of sorts. But at the end of the day Jaswal is just a misguided teenager who is blinded by the love of her boyfriend.

And for those Crooked in Canada readers who care, she now has 800 members who have joined ‘Save Dmitri Lennikov and his family’. I wonder how many of those 800 members are Russian immigrants or an immigrant from another country. Perhaps Ms. Jaswal would be kind enough to let us know those numbers.

And Nazampal, I know you have taken the time to read this blog article and with that in mind I have something to say to you:

While I applaud your loyalty to your friend’s family and I appreciate the fact that yes indeed immigrants did help to build Canada, your friend’s father wasn’t exactly honest when he applied to come to Canada, and therefore he should be returned to Russia just as I would expect to happen to any immigrant to Canada who scammed their way into the country. He obviously knew that his chances were slim and none of gaining permanent residency in Canada and he went out of his way to hide his KGB history. He only began speaking up about his KGB past after he was found out therefore your argument that he has been honest with immigration officials is moot. The point you were trying to make in your comment while it is welcome in Crooked in Canada isn’t valid especially since it was only after the walls started closing in around him that he decided to come clean about his KGB past.

What do you think of me now kid? Good luck to you and your boyfriend by the way. I really do hope things work out for you, but at the end of the day if the family is deported the only person they have to blame is the the head of the household, Mikhail Lennikov himself. He should have been upfront when he applied for permanent residency. Don’t you agree Nazampal?

Your cause gets no sympathy from me and millions of other Canadians who feel the same way as I do when it comes deporting those who are of questionable character and hide the truth about their lives in their motherland.