Why was a Vancouver immigration consultant protesting against immigration?

Former South African military man Ray Primack also has connections to fake identities used by anti-multiculturalists

Ian Youngin Vancouver

Published: 8:45am, 26 Nov 2014

Why you can trust SCMP

Let me be clear from the outset. The five guys who staged a protest on a flyover outside Vancouver last week, waving a banner blaming immigration for traffic jams, were perfectly entitled to do so.

And the public has a right to ask who they are and what they stand for.

The Hongcouver blog’s primary curiosity is this: Why was a registered immigration consultant’s agent among those few men protesting against immigration on that chilly morning in Richmond, the most ethnically Chinese city in North America?

It could be that Ray Primack, a South African immigrant whose immigration consultancy website is emblazoned with Chinese and Canadian flags, is simply an outrageous hypocrite, protesting against the very system from which he seeks to profit. Or it could be that Primack is an immigration consultant in name only, and that his consultancy services are in part a sham, designed for purposes other than profit. I don’t see much room for middle ground here, considering Primack himself provided no clarity when I spoke to him on Monday.

Primack is clearly identifiable in a cellphone video of the protest shot by commuter Eron Main, who approached the men on the Blundell Road overpass in Richmond on November 19. Primack is the burly, bespectacled protester who takes the greatest umbrage at being filmed and brings the video to an abrupt close by snatching the phone from Main’s hand.

WATCH: Eron Main's video of his encounter with the anti-immigration protesters

I first encountered Primack, a former member of the South African military, during a South China Morning Post investigation into the array of fake identities used by Canadian anti-multicultural activists to propel their agenda. Among the fake identities was “Palaan Tewsmith”, a non-existent opponent of immigration who counted Primack among his five Facebook friends. Primack was also friends with “Mark Champ”, another fake critic of multiculturalism. That struck me as odd – why was an immigration consultant friends with two fake anti-immigration activists?

So when I spotted Primack in Main’s video (alongside activists Brad Saltzberg and Dan Murray, both of whom have been linked to the use of false identities) I decided to give Primack a call to ask how he reconciled his position as an immigration consultant with his other activities.

Primack first said I had the wrong number, then changed tack to admit that yes, he was one of the men on the flyover, but this did not prove he “attended” the protest. It was a confusing gambit.

“How do you know I ‘attended’ and [was] not just watching?” he asked. “Do you know why I was there? Or what I was doing there?”

Well, he was hanging onto the banner.

Primack’s responses were similarly baffling when asked about his role as an agent for an immigration consultant I’ll call Ms Chen. Eventually, after more to-ing and fro-ing about what I knew and how I knew it, he conceded that yes, he was an agent for Ms Chen, as listed by the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council. As to why an immigration consultant might protest against immigration, Primack let down his guard just a little, in a way that suggests his participation in the industry might not be all that it seems.

“You know, I do a lot of things when it comes to investigating what’s going on. A lot of things, to see what’s going on on both sides of the coin, OK, so, I’m entitled to go wherever I want to,” he said.

So was Primack saying he was not really an immigration consultant?

“I never said that. I said I can do what I want to.”

As for Ms Chen, she told me she had taken on Primack as an agent after being referred to him by a “mutual friend”, but the relationship had not exactly proved lucrative; not a single paying client had eventuated and she had not seen Primack for three years. She professed no knowledge of Primack’s extracurricular activities - the Post does not suggest otherwise - and said she would get in contact with him to formally sever ties. Anyone who wants to shed light on Primack’s immigration services should feel free to contact the Hongcouver blog.

Main, who shot the protest video, said he had a right to find out who was behind the demonstration, which he saw as he drove his children to daycare in Richmond. “I live in this community, that’s a highway I drive all the time, so it was a message that was meant for me and I wanted to see who was sending it,” said Main, chief executive of the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation.

He said that “no question, this was a lawful protest”, but “ if you are going to exercise your right to present your political viewpoint in a public forum, then you have got to expect that people who don’t share your view also have a right to express that.”

Main said blaming immigration for traffic jams was “exceptionally simplistic”. “To me it is intended to create resentment. If you want a dialogue about immigration, don’t talk about traffic gridlock,” he said. “There are so many factors affecting traffic. It is patently absurd to just say, ‘well, if we had fewer immigrants there wouldn’t be as much traffic’.”

The Hongcouver blog is devoted to the hybrid culture of its namesake cities: Hong Kong and Vancouver. All story ideas and comments are welcome. Connect with me by email [email protected] or on Twitter, @ianjamesyoung70.

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