African refugee gives African nurse AIDS - Globe and Mail wants Canadians to pay the bill

There is a story in today's Globe and Mail about a Kenyan nurse working in Canada who was infected with the AIDS virus by an African refugee named Adrien Sylver Nduwayo. Nduwayo, originally from Burundi, is now serving 15 years in prison for intentionally infecting others with HIV. According to the article, at least four women were infected by this man. Another consequence of our 'generous' refugee policies.

From the Globe article (Cruel twist leaves women's lives in the balance by Lisa Priest and Marina Jimenez, May 13, 2007):

A Kenyan woman who came to this country in search of a better life, only to become infected with the AIDS virus in a sexual assault by a Canadian man, faces possible deportation for being a burden on the health-care system.

[Hyphenated_Canadian: Was it sexual assault? Later in the article, it becomes clear that the sex was consensual. I don't know what the legal definition of sexual assault is. It was a crime because the man did lie to her about not being infected, but even if technically correct, this paragraph is misleading. The opening sentence doesn't make it clear that the woman chose to have unprotected sex with him. From further down in the article:

She believed Mr. Nduwayo when he said he had no STDs. When she suggested a condom, he said they “get stuck in the vagina.”

Does that sound like she was forced to have sex with him, which is what I think most people would infer from the phrase 'sexual assault'? Of course, she doesn't deserve to be sick, but her illness is the consequence of a bad choice she made.

Calling this man a Canadian doesn't sound right. He is technically Canadian in the sense that Ottawa was stupid enough to allow him to become a citizen, but is he culturally Canadian? His formative experiences were in Africa, so why doesn't the Globe call him an African man, which is what he is, despite his new citizenship. Some blacks born in Canada like to play up their African roots, so why can't a man actually born in Africa be called an African? Answer: It doesn't suit the Globe's agenda, which is to blame Canada for this Kenyan woman's problem. By calling Nduwayo Canadian the Globe implies Canada is responsible for what happened. Ottawa is certainly guilty of letting him live here, but I don't think the Globe is in any hurry to change Canada's refugee policies. It's partly because of liberal newspapers like the Globe that Canada has awful immigration policies to begin with. Why are people like Nduwayo allowed to live in Canada? What are the consequences for Canada of allowing so many refugees to come here? Those are the sorts of question the paper should be asking.]

The 29-year-old, who cannot be named due to a court-ordered publication ban, was infected more than five years ago by Adrien Sylver Nduwayo, who is now serving the toughest prison sentence in Canada – 15 years – for intentionally infecting others with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

In the process, the Vancouver-area nurse and mother of two has become a victim not only of Mr. Nduwayo's crime but of the immigration system.

[Hyphenated_Canadian: Saying this woman is a victim of the immigration system is outrageous. She is a foreign national. She doesn't have an automatic right to live in Canada. Once again, the Globe and Mail forgets that Canada belongs to Canadians, who have every right to control which foreigners get to join our society. A woman from Kenya doesn't have an inherent right to become Canadian.]

That's because some HIV immigrants with significant health needs, such as requiring many months of costly antiretroviral therapy, can be deemed a burden on the health-care system.

This victim of crime could face a one-way trip back to Kenya, where access to antiretroviral medication is uncertain.

[Hyphenated_Canadian: As usual, the Globe and Mail has a perverse take on this story. Instead of examining the refugee policies that allow dangerous people like Nduwayo to come to Canada in the first place, the article is more concerned about the Kenyan woman who the government wants to deport because she is a burden on Canada's healthcare system.]

More from the article:

Individuals seeking permanent residence in Canada who are assessed as likely to pose an excessive demand on Canadian health and social services – determined as costing $20,285 or more in health and social services over a five-year period – are considered inadmissible on health grounds, according to Mélanie Carkner, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Good. Canada's healthcare system should put Canadians first. It would be wonderful if every person on the planet had good healthcare, but in a world of limited resources, Canada's medical system should focus on Canadians. Unfortunately, Canada can't afford to treat every person in the world who is sick. Why doesn't the Globe understand this?

The article says she is 'seeking permanent residence status.' I take that to mean she came here as a foreign worker not as an immigrant. If that's the case, why does the Globe act is if she is being denied something she's entitled to? She came here as a foreign worker. She made a bad decision that caused to her become sick. She's a burden on a healthcare system that already has trouble meeting the needs of the Canadians it is intended for. The government wants to send her home. Why does the Globe have a problem with that? If the authors of the article feel so strongly that this woman deserves help, why don't they offer to pay for her treatment with their own money? It's easy to be compassionate and generous when you're asking other people to foot the bill.

I do feel sorry for the woman, but why does she deserve better treatment than the millions of other Africans suffering from AIDS? Are we going to treat all of them as well? But, of course, the Globe article implies Canada is responsible because the man who infected her is a Canadian citizen. Papers like the Globe support the immigration and refugee policies that allow Africans like Nduwayo to become Canadian citizens. Then when some of those naturalized Africans commit crimes, the paper says Canadians are behaving badly, making no distinction between African immigrants and Canadians born here. Nduwayo may be a Canadian citizen, but he is not really Canadian. He is culturally African and should never have been allowed to live here.

Here's a surprise. One of the two reporters who wrote this Globe article is the utterly horrid Marina Jimenez - a journalist who makes a career out of promoting immigration policies that hurt Canadians. I don't know what's wrong with this woman. She doesn't seem to give a damn about her fellow citizens. Where is her compassion for the Canadians who have to wait in line for operations and other treatments because our healthcare system is overburdened? How does allowing an HIV-infected nurse stay in Canada affect them? All Jimenez seems to care about is fighting any effort by the government to deport people who shouldn't be here.

Jimenez is the kind of reporter who uses euphemisms like 'undocumented worker' for illegal immigrant and who thinks people who steal Canadian jobs are victims we should feel sorry for. Just because she doesn't want to do the construction jobs illegals take from Canadians doesn't mean this is work other Canadians won't do. Despite her Hispanic name, Jimenez is a typical white, middle-class liberal who loves to be 'generous' at the expense of other people. After all, there's no danger an illegal immigrant will take her job as a well-paid reporter for Canada's so-called 'national newspaper'.

The egregious immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman also makes an appearance in the Globe article:

Lorne Waldman, a Toronto immigration lawyer, believes she would stand a good chance of being accepted on humanitarian grounds.

“She has two Canadian-born children, has established herself here and was infected thanks to the criminal behaviour of a Canadian citizen,” he said. “Plus, she would have a greater life expectancy in Canada than in Kenya.”

Of course, it's partly because of immigration lawyers like Lorne Waldman that people like Adrien Sylver Nduwayo get to become Canadian citizens in the first place. For Waldman to use Nduwayo's status as a Canadian citizen as an excuse to blame Canada for what happened to this Kenyan nurse is outrageous. If Waldman cares so much about Canadian citizens infecting people with HIV, he should be fighting to reform the refugee policies that allow the Nduwayos of this world to settle in Canada.

Read the whole article.

See also:

An Immigration Lawyer Identifies "Rampant" Fraud On Medical Cards, Etc.

160 HIV-positive delegates to Toronto AIDS conference make refugee claims

Immigrants account for more than 90 percent of tuberculosis cases in Toronto

The growing problem of drug-resistant disease