Answer: because they know Canada has weak enforcement and they can linger here for years, then claiming "delays" and " humanitarian and compassionate" grounds. This case seems hardly unique, notwithstanding the claims by his counsel in the article. The better question, however, is what status this individual has in Canada at the moment, and why he has been able to come and go without any apparent action by the authorities despite their concerns. I think we should all feel very safe with the current system :-)
Brother of Mafia boss sues Canada over immigration request
Brother of Mafia boss sues Canada over immigration request
Adrian Humphreys, National Post
The brother of a powerful Mafia boss who was recently deported from Canada to Italy -- and who himself has been suspected of organized criminality - is suing the government for not processing his application to live in Canada with his wife and four children.
From his pleasant, toy-strewn home in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, Antonio Coluccio claims he is "at wit's end" after waiting five years for immigration officials to approve his permanent residency application.
While he has waited, however, he has seen one of his brothers arrested in Toronto at the request of Italian authorities, who called him one of the country's most dangerous fugitives, and another brother arrested in Italy after being found hiding in a secret bunker.
Both brothers were charged for a vast drug trafficking network and billed as leaders of a powerful clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the name of the Mafia in the southern Italian region of Calabria.
"His brother is very famous - infamous - and I understand the concern of the government," said Antonio Coluccio's immigration lawyer, Mendel Green.
"But [Antonio] has never been arrested. He is not a criminal. He is totally innocent of everything. Is someone responsible for his family's conduct? Not in this country," he said.
His brothers' conduct caused alarm in Italy and Canada.
In 2005, both Giuseppe Coluccio, the eldest of the three brothers, and Salvatore Coluccio fled drug and Mafia association charges in Italy and arrived in Toronto. Salvatore soon left while Giuseppe stayed, living under false names and making waves in the underworld.
Giuseppe was given a seat on the powerful Camera di Controllo, the board of control for local 'Ndrangheta clans, sources said, a sure sign of respect from Toronto-area gangsters. He also forged a bond with the Caruana-Cuntrera clan, a significant Sicilian Mafia group.
In August 2008, Giuseppe was arrested by Canadian police and deported to Italy, where he was imprisoned.
In May, Salvatore was found by Italian police in a secret bunker in the family's hometown of Marina Gioiosa Jonica, on Italy's Ionian coast. The hideout was equipped with a generator, air conditioning and a large supply of food.
He had been on the run for four years after being named as a leading mind in the movement of cocaine from South America to Europe.
Through all this, Antonio Coluccio, 39, shuttled back and forth between Italy and Canada, attracting suspicion but no arrests.
Mr. Coluccio's wife, Melina, is a Canadian citizen and sponsored his application to live here permanently in December 2004.
He still has no answer.
"He is entitled by law to a decision, one way or another," said Mr. Green. "All we are asking them to do is make a decision and make a lawful decision based on actual evidence. It is our position there is nothing untoward about this particular individual."
Mr. Coluccio was born in 1969 in Marina di Gioiosa Jonica two years and 16 days before his father, Vincenzo, was killed during a feud that ravaged competing Mafia clans.
He dropped out of school at the age of 14 and spent a year as a private in the Italian army before working in a family jewellery store, a café and as the owner of a car wash, all in Siderno, five kilometres down the coast.
He met the woman who would become his wife in 1994 at his sister's birthday party in Italy. The next day he called her and asked her out to dinner, according to his residency application.
"After that, we started seeing each other almost every day," he wrote, leading to a marriage proposal eight months later. A Catholic wedding ceremony was held in 1998 with 110 people attending St. Nicholas of Bari church, one of the most important cultural sites in Siderno.
Their reception was even larger, with 1,200 people heading up the road to the beachfront hotel reportedly owned by his in-laws.
The couple visited Toronto on their honeymoon.
Their wedding came the same year his wife obtained her residency status in Canada. Two years later, she became a Canadian citizen. They have since had four children together; the oldest is now 10.
Mr. Coluccio complains in court documents that being in limbo makes it difficult, emotionally and financially.
"My family has been affected very seriously by this lengthy delay in the processing of my application. My wife and our four children live in Canada while I am forced to split my time between Italy and Canada, as I am only permitted to remain in Canada as a visitor," he says in a sworn statement filed in court.
"After four years of processing delays ... my family and I were at our wits' end.
"I do not believe I am inadmissible to Canada and I am unable to understand why a decision cannot be made."
Last year, immigration officials told him that he might be deemed inadmissible on the grounds of organized criminality. His lawyer has been pushing officials to show him their evidence.
Documents show that the government has expressed some concerns.
"Coluccio is certainly a subject of interest to authorities here," says an internal email between Canadian authorities in Rome and Toronto.
"He claims not to be working in Canada yet he and his wife drive some high-end vehicles [Porsche and Volvo]. Huge house. Wife's company made a gross profit of only $16,000 in 2003. Where's the money coming from?" the email says.
Yesterday, after filing his suit in the Federal Court of Canada, the government asked Mr. Green for additional information in the application process.
"They want more information, we'll give it to them," he said.
National Post
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