Toronto Consulate relocation a big mess

Ghana Missions in Ottawa and Toronto are at it again: the constant disrespect and abuse they dish out to the public. The Missions' staff seems to have no sense of quality customer service.

Picture this scene. It's January 16, 2008. You walk into the new location of a Republic of Ghana Consular Office in Toronto that has been advertised for over a month. There are women and children, the elderly, a nursing mother, persons of nationalities from different parts of the world, some sitting on the floor right at the door of the Consulate and in the corridor. Others are slouching against the wall but standing up; obviously tired from waiting and standing in line for over 30 minutes. The time is 9:30 a.m. The Consular office door is locked. The people waiting are not only tired waiting in line but frustrated and complaining (rightly so) about the lack of service and lack of information regarding why the office that is supposed to be open at 9:00 a.m. was still not open at 9:30 a.m.

As a community leader who had just arrived at the scene, I called the Consul General, Mr. Kwabena Asare on his cell phone to enquire why the office remained closed at 9:30 a.m. on a full business day?

"Oh Mr. Blankson, we are on the way. I would be there around 10:30 a.m." Should I inform the waiting applicants about your (ETA) expected time of arrival? I asked the Consul General (CG).

"Oh no, don't tell them anything."

Nevertheless, I advised the waiting applicants about the situation and those who used pay parking for their vehicles to go downstairs and re-charge their parking spots, to avoid being ticketed. There is one particular brother who is very anxious about traveling the following Friday, only two days away. ?What am I going to do? I had to ask permission from work, organize my trip and now I am not sure I would even get a visa to travel to my own (former) country, Ghana.? God knows.

All of us Ghanaian-Canadians still have very strong emotional, spiritual and financial ties that bind us to our families we left behind as we traveled outside Ghana. Sensing that 10:30 a.m. could mean anything but, I left the still closed Consulate to do some business downtown. I returned around 11:45 to find that some of the earlier applicants had left the building. New applicants keep streaming in. I see a familiar Consulate staff and inquire why even she is standing outside the Consulate door? "I don't have a key, Mr. Blankson". I start expressing my own frustrations vocally.

Within a minute or so, I see the Consul General sauntering in, followed by some artisans. One of the artisans wonders aloud whether we are all locked out? He fidgets in his pocket and finds a key and opens the door. To my bewilderment, all I see inside is an empty office space.

"What is happening?" I asked the Consul General.

"Oh! Mr. Blankson, keep your voice down".

Well, when are we going to get our visas, considering that since yesterday, January 15, all applicants were asked to report to the 4665 Yonge Street, suite 205 location for consular services?

"Hey, Mr. Blankson, wonye nipa papa", the Consul General, Kwabena Asare disdainfully hissed in Akan.

"Never mind, here is my visa application; I am due to travel this coming Sunday."

"I don't care," retorted the Consul General.

The CG instructs the only other consular staff on scene to collect all the applications and passports and tell everyone to come for their visas on Monday, 21 January.

"But I will miss my flight on Sunday", I quipped.

"That's your business", he retorted.

Sensing trouble ahead, I retrieved my travel documents and called the High Commission in Ottawa to see if they could help. I was advised by the receptionist that both the High Commissioner and her Deputy were on vacation. After talking with two other consular staff in the Ottawa office, I was directed to the Visa Officer called Mr. Addo there who asked me to courier my travel documents to the new temporary location of the Ghana High Commission in Ottawa, at 153 Gilmore Street, for action. I couriered the application and my passport to Ottawa. I called Mr. Addo at the Ottawa Mission the next day to check whether he got my couriered parcel. To my utter shock and dismay, Mr. Addo told me on the phone that he has received instructions from Kwabena Asare in Toronto that he should not issue me the visa because I had insulted him!!! I could not believe what I was hearing. The next day, I drove for four hours to Ottawa from Toronto (a distance of nearly 400 kilometers) to retrieve my precious passport. When I got there Addo repeated his message and added that until I gathered about ten elders from Toronto plus the local community media to apologize to Kwabena Asare, the Consul General, I will never receive any consular services from either the Ottawa Mission or the Toronto Consulate. What is wrong with the foregoing picture?

In recent times, there have been a lot of negative media reports about the services provided by the Ghana Missions overseas, particularly in Canada. Some serious allegations (including embezzlement of funds and misappropriation of consular property) have been leveled against some consular and Mission officers. For the Ghanaian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area, it is an affront on us to be given such deplorable service. In a situation like the one I witnessed personally above and the deplorable treatment I have been subjected to, there is the same display of lack of courtesy, the lack of information, disgrace to the good name of Ghana and outright disrespect for the public especially the applicants?

The Consul General and other Mission staff forget that they are public officers paid by the Ghanaian taxpayer to perform efficient public service. They also forget that the visa applicants are a source of much needed foreign currency for Ghana (each visa applicant making a single entry into Ghana from Canada pays a $65.00 fee. Multiple entry visas are $150.00 per year per person). Consider that about 50% (maybe more) of the 80,000 Ghanaian Canadian residents in the GTA do travel back home to Ghana every year and require visas for each trip outside Canada to Ghana. Do we not deserve courteous, prompt service? Why was a simple move of the Consulate office from 7777 Keele Street in Vaughan to downtown North York be so horribly bungled and in the process, inflicting so much inconvenience on innocent visa applicants? Why should Mission staff and Consulate staff paid out of public funds behave as if they are guided by no rules, laws or regulations? Why should they behave as if they are operating their own private one-man businesses?

We have a report of one of our members who has waited over four years for a mistake made by the Toronto Consulate regarding affixing a wrong photo of an unidentified person (instead of the legitimate applicant's) on an approved and vetted application for dual citizenship to be corrected. These Ghana Missions are in a mess!! We call on the Ghana Government to do a thorough house cleaning and put the Ghana Missions in Canada (Ottawa and Toronto) in order, for the benefit of all.