The Side of Canada’s Refugee System We Ignore

I had heard stories before. People coming to Canada on fake documents, making refugee claims at the airport and finding ways to stay in the country. It is not exactly an unknown issue. But hearing about something from a distance is very different from watching it happen in front of you.

A mother and her thirty-year-old son came to Canada from another country. They travelled using fake relationship documents connected to people in Canada.

Later, they admitted, while talking about their journey to Canada, that their immigration agent created a fake relationship document and invitation letter on his own. He charged them extra for creating those documents for them. The relationship was completely fake. Those papers were simply used to help them reach Canada.

When they were questioned at the airport, they did not even try to continue with that story. Instead, they immediately claimed refugee status as they were told to do by the immigration agent.

After that, they travelled across the province to stay with us because we were the only people they knew here.

The mother had left her elderly husband alone in their home country, knowing that returning to him would not be easy after filing a refugee claim. She told us that she had travelled with her son because she believed immigration officers might not allow him to enter Canada alone. If they had not been questioned at the airport, she had planned to return to her husband while her son filed a refugee claim afterward.

Before coming to Canada, the son was unemployed, involved with drugs and wanted to come to Canada at any cost. They were not escaping torture. They were not running from persecution. There was no danger waiting for them back home.

Still, we helped them.

We helped them settle in. We guided them through the basic things they needed to understand. We arranged a lawyer to help them with their refugee case. We did what people usually do when someone they know arrives in a new country and needs support.

Then things started happening that I could not digest.

I saw them reading papers given to them by the lawyer. Those papers contained stories of torture and persecution in their home country. They even showed those papers to me. It was not just a few notes or general guidance. It was a full, detailed story about the difficult life they had supposedly lived in their home country, including claims of torture and persecution.

The problem was that none of it had happened to them.

Before coming to Canada, they had never spoken about being tortured, threatened or persecuted. There had never been any such experience in their lives. Yet suddenly, they were sitting with papers and preparing to tell those stories as part of their refugee claims.

And they were completely willing to go along with it.

That was one of the most disturbing parts for me.

There are people in this world who have actually been tortured. Some people have lost family members, homes and everything they had. Some people are genuinely afraid that returning to their country could cost them their lives.

And then some people use those same stories simply because they want to stay in Canada.

After making their claims, they started receiving government benefits.

I will still say this: hats off to the Canadian government for helping people who arrive with nothing. The support system exists for a reason. Someone who has genuinely escaped danger may need help with food, housing, healthcare and basic survival while trying to rebuild their life.

That kind of support can mean everything to the right person.

Then the mother and son received their work permits and started working.

This is where things became even more difficult to accept as they got the opportunity to stay in Canada and make a living for themselves.

However, they did not want to receive their salaries by cheque because they knew that officially reported income could reduce or stop their government benefits.

They wanted to be paid in cash so they could continue receiving both their wages and the benefits.

Basically, they wanted to get paid twice.

We tried to talk to them out of it as this is now wrong on another level. We explained that it was wrong. We told them that the benefits were meant for people who needed financial support, not for people who were working and hiding their income.

Their response was simple.

They said it was free money and they would keep taking it.

That sentence stayed with me.

Free money.

But it is not free money. It comes from people like us, who work, pay taxes and follow the rules. It comes from families trying to manage their own expenses. It comes from immigrants and citizens who honestly report their income and contribute to the system.

What made it worse was that they did not even feel ashamed.

They knew what they were doing. They had been warned. They understood why reporting income mattered. Still, they chose to hide it because they wanted to keep receiving everything they could.

Their attitude also changed very quickly.

When they first arrived, they needed help with almost everything. They depended on others to guide them, support them and help them understand life in Canada.

But after they started receiving benefits and working, they began acting as if they owned the laws of the country — as if the rules applied to everyone except them.

The gratitude disappeared. The humility disappeared. They started behaving as if everything was owed to them and as if everyone else was beneath them.

That is the part I still cannot understand.

People helped them. The country supported them. The system gave them financial assistance and the right to work. Instead of respecting that help, they treated it as something to exploit.

Some things people do, you can ignore. Especially in today’s cruel world where you don’t know what would happen to you if you raise a voice. You can keep a blind eye and tell yourself that it is none of your business.

But some things are too wrong to ignore.

Watching people use fake relationship documents, claim refugee status at the airport, prepare false stories of torture and then hide their income while collecting benefits changed the way I look at the system.

This is not about genuine refugees.

People who are truly running from war, torture, persecution, violence or serious danger deserve safety and support. They deserve a fair chance to rebuild their lives.

This is about the people who know exactly what they are doing and still choose to misuse a system created to protect others.

And what makes it worse is that they do it without guilt.

They call it free money.