By Krishan Bector
It is assumed that the victims of marriage fraud are only girls or brides, which is not true.
It has come to the notice of Canadian Marriage Fraud Victims’ Society that grooms are victims
too where the girls took max advantage of over protective laws which have leanings towards ladies. In addition to the laws there are many societies which espouse the cause of the abandoned brides and lobby for the redressal of their grievances. Rarely do we find any society that provides protection to deserted grooms..
Whosoever be the victim the society fought tooth and nail to straighten the immigration system and by now has succeeded in getting very bold legislation implemented according to which sponsored spouses are to live in a legitimate relationship with their sponsors for two years or risk losing their permanent resident status.
In the words of former Immigration Minister Jason Kenny, who daringly took this step said, “implementing a two-year conditional permanent residence period will help deter marriage fraud, prevent the callous victimization of innocent Canadians and help us put an end to these scams” In majority of cases these phony marriages are commercial transactions.” The law puts two-year condition during which they are to establish living as husband and wife. Since the introduction of the legislation we didn’t get any phone call regarding run away spouses.
Ruby Dhalla former Canadian MP who was in India to attend NRI Sammelan in 2013,
launched a NGO Charity Dream For You which would work for the young women deserted
by NRIs. The Society questions her what she did for the abandoned brides when she was the
M.P. of the ruling Liberal Party in 2004. The practice of phony, in some instances, pre-planned paper marriages were going on and there was no voice raised. It was in 2006 the society raised the issue and launched determined campaign and decided not to rest till the legislative changes are made to halt this mode of marriages.
Dhalla’s interview with Yamini Lohia appeared in The Indian Express ,Saturday November 16,2013 carries the headlines: ‘We need to start collecting data on fraud marriages’. She again writes : “we want to take a proactive approach so that before these women actually get married their families research the groom, his family and history.”Here I may comment that there is a race for sending their girls to Canada, parents don’t wish to find out about the NRI boy. Again she plans to open offices in Zirakpur and Mohali. Creation of awareness and counseling hardly reach remote villages where NRIs seek their brides.
In another headline: Ruby Dhalla’s initiative to offer legal aid to the deserted NRI brides appeared in the Tribune Dec 8,2013 . This too remains undefined, whether that aid would be available to fight cases in the so called fast track courts in Punjab/India or in Canada. Ruby Dhalla, had visited India in 2008, when she was still MP. What data has she collected about these forsaken brides, from 2004 to 2011 during the period when she was M.P. or at least from 2008 to date ? Picture of two brides appear in The Tribune. This story was covered by Rachna Khaira as of January 10,2014. who writes : “Deserted, let down and cash-starved, over 3500 NRI wives in the state have flayed the NRI Privilege Card Scheme of the state government. They have accused the state government of ignoring them and
extending benefits to the offenders of the state.” They are Jasdeep Kaur of Jalandhar and Avinash Kaur of Mohali. From the political pulpit to talk about tackling this problem , appears
to me that it amounts to gaining political mileage out of this pitiable plight of ambitious girls of Punjab.
For years former MP Balwant Ramoowalia has been playing on this sensitive issue, end result is
before us. The victims are still victims . Here I agree with Justice Arvind Kumar Chairman of the Commission for NRIs who writes : “NRI fraud Marriages still a knotty affair, Bringing runaway grooms to book remains a challenge for Punjab State.”The victims want their deserters immediately deported from Canada. Only that would quench their fiery wrath. The society is working on it without professing lofty claims.
Krishan Bector is the Co-founder ( with Palwinder Gill ) of the Canadian Marriage Fraud Victims’ Society, which was founded in 2006.
