Hello Everyone. My name is Dan Murray and I am with a national organization called Immigration Watch Canada.

I'm here to express support for Sally, Shajila and the other people here today because theirs is an immigration issue and we are a group advocating major changes to current immigration policies. If I can put today's issue in a nutshell, I would say most people are here today because they oppose sham immigration marriages. In other words, they want our federal government to put a stop to people using fake marriages to enter Canada. In addition, they want the people who have used these sham marriages to be exposed, apprehended and dealt with justly.

Some sham marriages are conscious financial arrangements between men and women to allow one of the pair to get into Canada. One of the pair agrees with the other to pay a sum of money in return for the other's silence in any dealings with immigration authorities. Many of these marriages are agreements between individuals. but there are also signs that organized crime is involved in these arrangements and that these sham marriages are part of international People Smuggling Operations.

Other sham marriages, however, are conscious attempts by one of the parties to trick the partner into believing that this is a real love relationship. Some of these marriages involve Canadian women who are cheated into marrying a non-Canadian man. But Canadian men have also been cheated into marrying non-Canadian women. The general point is that it is illegal for either one partner or both partners to use this method as a way to enter Canada.

These sham marriages have been reported to Canada's Immigration Minister and his department many times. But little seems to have been done to correct this violation of Canadian law and the injustices that have been committed against Canada in general and against particular Canadian citizens.

So I am here today to call upon the Immigration Minister and the federal government to do all it can to end the practice of sham marriages and to provide justice to all those who have been victims of this abuse.