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At long last, here's the American
expatriate in Budapest's eye view of the Krisztina Gál
affair, via Erik d'Amato's well-crafted and strangely engrossing
Pestiside. (I say
"strangely engrossing" because I've never been to
Budapest and have no logical reason to be interested in its
charmingly provincial scandals and gossip. Some days, I guess
Canada's charmingly provincial scandals and gossip just aren't
enough.)
Anyway, the National
Post (who can still claim an exclusive on this story) reported
on Friday that Gál and her boyfriend have lost round one of
the hundred-and-something-round battle royal that is deporting
someone from Canada. Her lawyer says she "deserves" to
be allowed to stay; I still say that makes little sense. And Gál
doesn't exactly bolster an undue hardship claim when she allows:
"If I go back, at least I could have a big wedding."
Letter-writer Timothy Jacques does make
an interesting point in today's Post,
however: "If [running background checks on witnesses] is
indeed standard procedure, I can now understand why when there
is a shooting outside a nightclub nobody wants to get
involved." If indeed many witnesses to such crimes are
evading arrest for one thing or another, then one could make a
pragmatic argument for going easy on such people who come
forward. Yet however fruitful it proved, this would be a
disagreeable and unfair practice, much like plea-bargaining, and
it would not mitigate the guilt or innocence of the witness on
his or her prior crimes — only his or her treatment. Gál's
immigration offences, for instance, would not suddenly cease to
exist; she would not suddenly "deserve" to stay.
Rather, she would be allowed to stay as a means to an end.
But enough already. If she goes, I wish her good
luck back in Hungary. If she stays, I'm sure she'll make a go of
it here. The way the government ministry in question is being
run these days, anything is possible. At least now we know the
answer to that age-old riddle: how do you get a bunch of right-wing
nutjobs onside with an illegal immigrant?
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