Báo
Mỹ loan tin là Thị Trưởng Tạ Đức Trí báo động “Việt cộng xâm nhập vào Thành Phố
Westminster” khiến Hoàng Kiều, Tài Đỗ, Phát Bùi, Nguyễn Phương Hùng, Hoàng Duy
Hùng, Đoàn Trọng... điên tiết phản đối City.
Trích:
|
Westminster Mayor
Claims Vietnam Interference at City Hall
JULIE LEOPO, Voice of
OC
Westminster Mayor Tri
Ta, facing a possible recall, has proposed a resolution calling on residents to
denounce alleged attempts by the Vietnamese government to foment disorder at
City Hall.
By BRANDON PHO
September 11, 2019
The Vietnamese
government is behind more than six months of political turmoil at Westminster
City Hall, according to Mayor Tri Ta.
He did not provide
specific evidence for his claims, which could become an official city
statement.
In a draft resolution
to be voted on at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, he describes a “marked
increase” since the 2018 elections in political incidents and disruptions “in
furtherance” of Vietnamese government policies that “call for direct
confrontation with and active conflicts against any and all overseas forces
that present a threat to the Vietnamese Communist Party’s hold on power.” The
resolution encourages residents to “raise their voices” against anyone they suspect
of fomenting disorder on behalf of Hanoi.
Ta, who is facing a
possible recall election, did not respond to multiple phone and text attempts
for comment. Neither did the State Department or the Vietnamese Embassy in
Washington, D.C. Rukelt Dalberis, a spokesman for the FBI’s Los Angeles Field
Office, said the agency can neither confirm nor deny whether they’re currently
investigating suspected foreign interference in the city.
Westminster has the
highest number of Vietnamese American residents outside Vietnam. They are
“diametrically opposed to the Hanoi regime,” Ta says in the resolution. North
Vietnam defeated South Vietnam in 1975 and thousands of South Vietnamese
immigrated to the U.S.
Ta claims the
Vietnamese government is working with some residents — who he identifies as
Vietnamese American “community activists” and “independent journalists” in
Orange County’s Little Saigon — to disrupt city business with misinformation
campaigns.
Van Tran, a former
State Assemblyman and Ta’s attorney throughout a recall effort against him,
said “the level or intensity of political turmoil” in Westminster ramped up
after the last set of elections.
“You have elected
officials come and go, with of course differences and arguments, but never have
I seen … the level of disturbance and political instability that’s occurring
right now. I think (Ta’s) resolution addresses that squarely,” he said.
The 2018 elections in
Westminster resulted in two factions on the five-member City Council. Ta and
Councilmembers Kimberly Ho and Charlie Nguyen comprise the majority.
Councilmembers Tai Do and Sergio Contreras are the minority.
Over the last eight
months, Do has challenged the majority on ideas about ethics and power at City
Hall, frequently accusing them during public meetings of corruption and
operating “above the law.”
Almost every City
Council meeting now draws large crowds of the city’s English and
Vietnamese-speaking residents, who criticize select council members in public
comments.
The fighting also
prompted recall campaigns against all five council members, with interest from
elected officials and political groups across Orange County.
Do in a phone
interview called Ta’s claims in the new draft policy “a scare tactic”
reminiscent of “McCarthyism,” and said it’s an effort to shield the majority
faction “against a qualified legal recall effort that’s been pushed by the
residents of Westminster.”
The recall efforts
against Ho, Nguyen and Ta — under the leadership of political group Westminster
United — are closer to an election than the efforts to unseat Do and Contreras.
Westminster United has
gained the support of Vietnamese American billionaire Kieu Hoang, who’s hired
paid signature collectors and political consultant Dave Gilliard to advise the
recall team’s strategies.
Ta in his draft policy
says U.S. law enforcement agencies like the FBI “have in past years confirmed …
that there have been active efforts by the Hanoi regime to infiltrate and
disrupt any international attempt to oppose its one-party rule.”
Tran said he remembers
a community meeting in the early 2000’s — when he was on the Garden Grove City
Council — where FBI and Orange County District Attorney officials said they
were monitoring suspected foreign agents in Little Saigon.
“It’s been so long
ago,” he said in a later text. “I remembered some of the Viet local electeds as
well as community leaders and (representatives) of different groups. There were
maybe 25-30 people.”
In the 1990’s, the FBI
launched controversial ads in Vietnamese language newspapers in California
calling on Vietnamese Americans to report people who they suspected of being spies
for Hanoi.
Among the newspapers
running the ads was Little Saigon’s Nguoi Viet Daily News, according to the Los
Angeles Times.
In 1999, a Westminster
video store prompted large protests in the city after hanging a photo of Ho Chi
Minh — the late Vietnamese Communist leader who died in 1969 — and a Communist
Vietnamese flag. A judge that year ruled in favor of Truong Van Tran, the store
owner, on the basis of 1st Amendment free speech, according to the Times.
“The lighting rod
issue of communism is the cudgel or blunt instrument to mobilize for or against
someone,” said Long Bui, a UC Irvine professor and expert in Vietnamese and
South Asian issues.
Bui said accusations
of communism among Vietnamese American communities “can hurt an individual’s political
aspirations, since they are effectively denounced as un-American, essentially a
spy or puppet of foreign dictatorship.”
In June, the majority
faction approved a city statement denouncing Do over a Facebook post on his
official page reading “Westminster is officially now Ho Chi Minh City brought
to you by Tri Ta, Kimberly Ho, and Chi (Charlie) Nguyen.”
Supporters of Do
called the post “sarcasm.” He wrote it after after a June 12 council meeting
ended with the adoption of a policy that bars any council member from placing
an item on a future public meeting agenda without the approval of three council
members.
Critics of the policy,
like Do and Contreras, accused the majority of passing the agenda-setting item
to consolidate power over city issues and political opponents.
Ta in his resolution
also identifies “aiders and abettors” of the Vietnamese government as people
who have “hosted internet websites and related social media (forums) to
criticize and attack Vietnamese American community leaders and certain elected
officials,” as well as people who have “disseminated false information or
‘half-truths’” on platforms like social media.
Bui said Vietnamese
Americans across the U.S. “remain super-sensitive to accusations of being
called a communist, whether one was born during or even after the war.”
“The label can quickly
turn something merely political into something controversial,” he said. “If you
call someone a communist, you are saying they are an enemy of the community and
must be pushed out.”
Brandon Pho is a Voice
of OC intern. Contact him at bpho@voiceofoc.org
or on Twitter @photherecord.
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VIỆT
TÂN, VIỆT CỘNG, VIỆT KIỀU
BA THỨ HỢP LẠI TIÊU ĐIỀU NƯỚC NAM
Nam Lộc và Trịnh Hội
bị “khốn nạn”
Trong thời gian qua,
bạn Nguyễn Thanh Tú, các vị Linh Mục, các đồng hương tỵ nạn ở Thái Lan và Hoa
Kỳ tố cáo hai thằng Nam Lộc và Trịnh Hội “đánh tráo” danh sách người Việt Nam
tỵ nạn đang ở Thái Lan bằng các “đại gia và cán bộ Việt cộng” để được nhập cảnh
qua Canada sống, hôm nay Chính Phủ Canada khám phá và thấy bằng chứng lửa đảo,
gian lận. Vụ này nổ lớn, và Nam Lộc, Trịnh Hội bị “khốn nạn” rồi. Sẽ chi
tiết sau.
Trích:
|
Canada·CBC
Investigates
How a special program
to resettle Vietnamese boat people revealed flaws in Canada's immigration
system
Canada Border Services
Agency investigating potential violations under federal legislation
Eric Szeto, Joseph
Loiero, David Common · CBC News · Posted: Oct 10, 2019 4:00 AM ET
Vo Van Dung gave the
television cameras a thumbs-up as he walked through Toronto's Pearson
International Airport.
Along with more than
100 Vietnamese "boat people" who arrived in Canada between 2014 and
2017, he was landing in the country after seemingly living in the shadows of
society for the previous 20 years.
Rather than live under
Communist rule in Vietnam, many who fled their homeland after the Vietnam War
sought refuge in neighbouring Thailand in the 1970s and '80s.
But refuge came with a
price. For decades, they were living "without status" or as
"stateless" people. They could not work without the threat of being
arrested or fined. They had no access to health care.. Some relied on donations
to make ends meet.
They had few to no
options until Canada accepted them under a special program designed to resettle
boat people who had been living under desperate circumstances.
A business card
identifies Vo as director of Saigon Red Travel, which has its headquarters in
Vietnam. (Submitted)
But CBC News has
learned that Vo was apparently living a more privileged life prior to coming to
Canada.
The 57-year-old had
been running a tour guide business. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
Saigon Red Travel Company Limited offered tours between Vietnam and Thailand.
And Vo wasn't shy about his business and travel ventures, posing for photos
with employees that were posted to social media.
Records obtained by
CBC show the business began operating in 2014, two years before Vo arrived in
Canada. (CBC)
A CBC investigation
into the program has found at least five people, including Vo, ended up in
Canada even though they do not appear to be those the government wanted to
help, raising questions about the checks and balances meant to protect the
country's immigration system.
"Canada is known
for being an international example for humanitarian endeavours, for people who
are displaced, for people who are in trouble somehow," said Guiddy Mamann,
a refugee lawyer in Toronto.
"If people took
the place of a more deserving candidate, then that would trouble me a
lot."
Vo did not respond to
CBC's requests for comment. But when CBC News asked an acquaintance of his
about his business and lifestyle, he said Vo goes back and forth between
Vietnam, Thailand and greater Vancouver and "thinks he's doing very
well."
Who are the stateless?
A humanitarian crisis
ensued following the fall of Saigon in 1975. Close to one million people fled
from Vietnam — many by boat. Their journeys were perilous. The United Nations
estimates up to 250,000 boat people died at sea.
Many of the boat
people who did make it landed in neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Hong
Kong, the Philippines and Thailand.
Canada alone took in
more than 100,000 refugees after the war.
People rest in a
refugee shelter in Hong Kong on Jan. 7, 1980, after leaving Vietnam.
(Fresco/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In 1996, Vietnam
repatriated tens of thousands of boat people from abroad. Those who did not
want to go back because of fear of persecution back home escaped from refugee
camps, living stateless in places like Thailand.
In 2006, the
Vietnamese Canadian Federation (VCF), along with a U.S.-based group called the
Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment (VOICE), appealed to
the Canadian government to bring over a number of stranded people from
Thailand.
Current Alberta
Premier Jason Kenney, who was federal immigration minister at the time, met
discreetly with Thai government officials to ensure they would be provided exit
permits to leave the country.
A Canadian government
official says Thai officials did not want to raise awareness about the program
for fear that thousands of people would enter the country illegally and turn
their country into an immigration hub.
"I actually went
to Bangkok … and we had a lot of negotiations," Kenney told a room full of
recently arrived stranded people in Vancouver, according to a YouTube video of
the 2014 session. "We promised to do this negotiation in a discreet
way."
According to a senior
government official and another person consulted in developing the resettlement
program, the conditions for the more than 100 people who were eventually let in
were narrow and specific: those who were selected had to have remained in
Thailand after leaving Vietnam between 1984 and 1991. This meant anyone who had
been repatriated back to Vietnam or lived elsewhere would not qualify.
CBC ARCHIVES: Boat
people: A refugee crisis
Ex-diplomats on
gruelling work of rescuing Vietnamese boat people
But Mamann, the
Toronto immigration lawyer, said there were major shortcomings in program's
written policy, which was called a "Memorandum Of Understanding Relating
To A Temporary Public Policy Concerning Certain Vietnamese Persons In
Thailand."
The MOU said that
applicants had to have arrived from Vietnam between 1984 and 1991 and be
residing in Thailand — but it never specifically said that they had to have
lived continuously in Thailand the entire time.
"This is an
obvious error…. The whole underpinning of this thing was we believe that you
can't go back to your country [and] that you're stuck here. You're like on an
island in the middle of the ocean and we have to come and rescue you,"
said Mamann. "The language was sloppy and not precise."
The first wave of
people arrived in Canada in 2014, with the last family arriving in 2017.
But towards the end of
the program, the Vietnamese community in North America and overseas began
criticizing some of those who were chosen for it.
'Please help us'
Nguyen Tu, a former
boat person who runs a cyber security company in Houston, began investigating
the concerns in 2016 after receiving tips about the program from people
stranded in Thailand.
He travelled to
Vietnam and Thailand and heard allegations that a number of vulnerable people
who believe they should have been accepted into the program had been
overlooked.
"Several boat
people from Thailand contacted me … [saying]: 'Please help us, help us,' "
said Nguyen.
Nguyen Tu, a former
boat person, began investigating concerns over the Canadian resettlement
program after receiving tips about it from people stranded in Thailand.
(Jonathan Castell/CBC)
The claims and the
numbers of incidents prompted him to arrange meetings with officials from the
Thailand Immigration Bureau, the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP in
Thailand. He said he provided them with material he had uncovered.
Then in May 2019,
Father Nguyen Thien, a U.S.-based priest, along with Dau Vu Bac, a former boat
person living in the U.S., hosted a Facebook video live from Bangkok in a room
of stateless Vietnamese making more allegations.
The video, viewed
close 50,000 times, accused groups such as VOICE of selecting people such as Vo
Van Dung, who had gone back to Vietnam, over them.
"It's my
understanding that some of those people didn't deserve to go as boat
people," Dau said in Vietnamese. "So those people shouldn't have
gone, but were sponsored by VOICE anyway."
In May 2019, Father
Nguyen Thien, a U.S.-based priest, co-hosted a Facebook video live from Bangkok
where stateless Vietnamese made more allegations about the program. (Nguyen
Thien/Facebook)
CBC spoke to two
people who had been living on the margins in Thailand and say they were left
off the list.
Pham Ty said he
arrived in Thailand in 1991 and lived at a number of refugee camps over a
period of years.. Almost 30 years later, he said he still lives in a town near
the Thailand-Cambodian border.
He said he applied for
the Canadian resettlement program but wasn't selected and wasn't given an
explanation why.
"I believe in
fairness. I believe that God and Buddha and the heavens will see everything.
There's no point in blaming other people," he said when asked whether he
was upset others got into Canada instead of him. "If I'm allowed [into
Canada] I would be grateful."
The other cases
Through sources,
business records, social media accounts, emails and archival footage on
Vietnamese television, CBC found at least five questionable candidates for the
program.
One of those people is
Truong Lan Anh, who according to her social media account, lives in Ottawa. She
arrived in 2016 but business records for a travel company based in Vietnam,
showed Truong Thi Lan Anh as the owner since 2012.
Business records show
Truong Lan Anh has owned a travel company in Ho Chi Minh City since 2012.
(Submitted)
Facebook photos showed
her taking photos at the business in 2013. An employee at the travel agency,
according to a video obtained by CBC, confirmed Truong was her employer.
Truong did not respond
to CBC's requests for comment.
A business record
shows a licence date of Sept. 7, 2012, for the business owned by Truong. (CBC)
Another case involved
Sabay Kieng. In 2014, he was welcomed to a gallery of media and supporters as
he arrived in Toronto. Kieng said he had been struggling for years trying to
support his family.
"I [wanted] to
find a job. It's not easy so I sell some fruit on the street [in Thailand] ...
to feed my son and my wife," he told CBC in a telephone interview.
He's said he's working
in automotive manufacturing in the Greater Toronto Area.
But CBC obtained
records, photos and videos that showed he had been running a jewelry and crafts
business in Cambodia called Craftworks Cambodia since at least 2008. He
travelled at one point to Manila to give a talk about his business experience
at a conference.
A business record
identifies Sabay Kieng, who also went by the name Keang Sapbay in Cambodia, as
the owner of the Craftworks Cambodia website years before he came to Canada.
(CBC)
Kieng confirmed to CBC
that he had businesses in Cambodia but said he did not live there, only near
the border.
But according to a
former business associate, he lived in a house in Cambodia's capital, Phnom
Penh, before coming to Canada.
"I think compared
to a lot of people in Cambodia, he was living quite well," the business
associate told CBC. "He went straight to Canada. I mean, he had to go
immediately when he got the approval."
CBC tried reaching
Kieng on the phone again but he said he was "busy" before hanging up.
CBC made further
attempts to get a comment about these inconsistencies but did not get a response.
'A very ominous cloud'
Nguyen Dinh Thang,
chief executive officer for Boat People S.O.S, an American non-profit
organization that provides legal assistance for Vietnamese refugees abroad, had
serious questions about the program as well after CBC showed him examples it
had found, including the case involving Vo.
"They cannot even
work legally in Thailand let alone [run] a business in Thailand or in other
countries," said Nguyen, who was in discussions with the Vietnamese
Canadian Foundation during the negotiations on the agreement. "If they are
truly stranded, they may not."
While the MOU is vague
and never specifically said that applicants had to be residing in Thailand the
entire time, after reviewing CBC's examples, Nguyen does not think these are
the types of people the Canadian government intended on helping based on the
intent of the policy.
"None of those
cases would be eligible, under this temporary special program," he said.
Nguyen Dinh Thang,
chief executive officer for Boat People S.O.S., an American non-profit organization
that provides legal assistance for Vietnamese refugees abroad, has serious
questions about the program. (Andrew Lee/CBC)
The process of
selecting people went like this: the VCF was responsible for identifying
potential candidates, but looked to VOICE to help stranded people in Thailand
complete and submit applications to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (now
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada).
Once the list of
potential applicants was passed on to Canadian immigration officials, the
federal government would be responsible for interviewing people and to
ultimately ensure their eligibility for entry into Canada.
Nguyen, who provides
legal assistance for Vietnamese refugees in Thailand, said he is
"perplexed by the lack of internal control" by the Canadian
government because if there is any suspicious activity, that would
"clearly cast a very ominous cloud" on all refugee programs.
"It is the
responsibility of immigration to screen and serve as the first line of defence
to protect the integrity of the country's immigration program," said
Nguyen.
The VCF said it was
not aware of any questionable candidates coming into Canada and that the final
decision to let anyone into Canada rested with Canadian immigration.
A senior government
official involved in helping create the program told CBC the government would
not have agreed to this program if it was aware of people coming from Vietnam
to Thailand after repatriation or elsewhere.
He said that it would
"undermine the claim they had no alternative option available to
them."
'It's unfair'
CBC showed VOICE
co-founder Trinh Hoi examples of people who critics say did not deserve to
come, including Vo.
"Just because
someone got resettled here doesn't mean that the person cannot go back to
Vietnam and visit his homeland," said Trinh.
"You cannot use
one story of someone who has been able to do well or relatively well … to
illustrate and say that the refugees were not stateless and were not desperate
-- it's unfair," he said.
Trinh Hoi, co-founder
of the Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment, said names
submitted to the Canadian government for the resettlement program were
'eligible to the best of my knowledge.' (CBC)
"When one person
took advantage, and I'm not even saying [Vo] took advantage of the system, if
he's eligible under the law … he should be considered if he meets [the]
criteria," he said.
Trinh said the names
submitted to the Canadian government were "eligible to the best of my
knowledge" and that his job was to "refer those cases for
consideration" with the federal government.
He denied he or his
group did anything untoward, refuting the assertions in the video.
'We take those
concerns very seriously'
A government source
confirmed to CBC that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is investigating
potential violations under the Immigration, Refugee Protection Act but would
not indicate who, if any, specific individuals are being investigated.
Immigration, Refugees
and Citizenship Canada Minister Ahmed Hussen would not comment on any of these
allegations but did say that confidence in Canada's immigration system is of
utmost importance.
Immigration Minister
Ahmed Hussen says confidence in Canada's immigration system is of utmost
importance. (Joseph Loiero/CBC)
"I think it's
important for us to continue to maintain the integrity of our system. We take
any allegation of fraud or anything that threatens the integrity of our refugee
system very very seriously," said Hussen.
Hussen said he
couldn't comment on the considerations that were made at the time the program
was established because it was set up by the previous government.
Kenney's office
declined to comment on the matter and told CBC "it's been a long time
since he was immigration minister and he is fully focused on Alberta now."
Do you have any tips
on this story? Please contact Eric Szeto eric.szeto@cbc.ca
or Joseph Loiero joseph.loiero@cbc.ca
CBC's Journalistic
Standards and Practices|About CBC News
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