Overstating Citizenship “Fraud” – New Canadian Media

My take on citizenship fraud, with analysis of released numbers to date:

Some may argue that any fraud is unacceptable.

But the quest for perfection has to be balanced with the realities of efficient management and good service delivery.

There are more fraud issues with citizens originating in certain countries, both in terms of country of birth and likely country of application. From a risk management perspective, that is where the focus should be and likely is.

As the government addresses the backlog and implements the new Citizenship Act, we will see starting in 2016 whether it has achieved a reasonable balance between reduced fraud, efficiency, and accessibility of citizenship, meeting the Minister’s commitment of a one-year processing time.

Overstating “Fraud” – New Canadian Media – NCM.

Methodological Note: A number of readers have asked regarding the source of the numbers and analysis:

• An ATIP request provided to me by a student listed the countries of birth for the 3,194 investigations;
• Beyond the fact that this number was as of 31 March 2012, no details on which years were included (i.e., did all the cases of suspected misrepresentation pertain to citizenship applications in one year or, as I suspect, a number of years);
• Other numbers were pieced together from public statements and communications material from the past few years. I integrated as best I could;
• the percentage figures were calculated against the 5 year annual average of new citizens (2008-12);
• I asked CIC to confirm and update these numbers. CIC declined, suggesting I file an ATIP request and sending along some communications material.