Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to Mr. Wiens’s letter printed [online] Oct. 2 [Figueroa tale telling, Langley Advance Times, Oct. 4]. It’s regarding Mr. Jensen’s work and action on the Jose Figueroa immigration file. Mr. Wiens states that “Leon wasn’t even an MP, but he still used his connections to get the job done.”
Mr. Wiens makes audacious and uncorroborated statements. He knows full well the people from both the Conservative and Liberal governments who worked on behalf of Mr. Figueroa in his efforts to remain in Canada are not able to speak about the file.
Additionally, the one person who remained a constant advocate within his government on this file, former Member of Parliament Mark Warawa, sadly passed away this past June and is not able to respond to these claims and quite frankly, he shouldn’t need to. With that, I point Mr. Wiens and Langley Advance Times readers to two articles in which Mr. Warawa is quoted:
November 10, 2015, Langley Times:
“I believe that it is in the best interest of our country, and in the best interest of Mr. Figueroa’s (wife and) three Canadian-born children, that Mr. Figueroa is granted permanent resident status,” Warawa wrote.
December 23, 2015, CBC News:
Mark Warawa, the Conservative MP for Langley-Aldergrove, has been pushing for an exemption for Figueroa for years. “On issues like this, they’re non-partisan. We work together,” he said.
“I’m thrilled at the outcome and as I say, John McCallum is minister, he gets the credit. I’m thrilled. This is what we’ve been hoping for, for a number of years, and you can’t get better than to get a gift like this at Christmas.”
So, Mr Wiens, if you would like to ask the public to give all credit to Mr. Jensen, go ahead but know you do so in error.
Kim Houlind, Langley