Response to Open Letter from Amnesty International  August 9,
2011  Dear Mr Neve and Mrs Vaugrante,  I must confess that my
first reaction upon reading your open letter to Minister Toews
and myself was one of surprise and joy.  For your organization
to muster its formidable powers of suasion against the orderly
and innoxious proceedings of the Canadian immigration system
must mean that the world’s most truculent regimes have
discharged their last political prisoners and advocates of
democracy are free to march in the streets of Tehran and
Pyongyang.  I have since learned this is not the case, leaving
me puzzled as to why Amnesty International (AI) would waste its
time and resources opposing the legal deportation of war
criminals and serious human rights violators from Canada.   When
I joined AI in high school, it was to defend the rights of
political dissidents like Andrei Sakharov and to oppose brutal
regimes, including those still doing bloody business in Iran and
North Korea.  I am disappointed to learn yo