Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I just want to summarize and make sure I have a definitive answer. If you have a membership in an organization or a group deemed to be inadmissible as a whole, is it true that all members, whether affiliated with it or a past member or linked to it in some way—is it possible that some of those people will not be deemed inadmissible? Or is it a given that everyone associated with that particular group would be deemed inadmissible?

[Peter Hill]

I would point you to section 34 of IRPA in particular, which relates to inadmissibility concerning security. Sections 34, 35, 36, and 37 relate to security, criminality, war crimes, and organized crime.

That sets out the definition we all are guided by in terms of determining admissibility or inadmissibility to Canada. I can say that the courts' interpretation of the term “membership” has been fairly broad.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Hill has two minutes.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I'm sorry, could I ask one more question?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Sure, it's up to you two.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I want to go back to the issue of deportation. I think I heard you say that 90% of the people who are removed from Canada are actually failed refugee claimants.

In that conversation, I heard someone say—I'm not sure who answered that question—that it can take up to four to five years to have someone physically removed from Canada after they have failed the refugee status...or their claim. Yet I also heard from someone else on this panel that deportation is done as quickly as possible.

I'm trying to understand whether “as quickly as possible” means four to five years and why it takes that long.

[Peter Hill]

I'll be happy to—

[Pierre Sabourin]

If I could start, I'm looking at my numbers again—I'm the one who quoted 90%—and it was actually 73% last year, so I would correct that number. I was looking at another number. I apologize.

IRPA is very clear. It says it's as practically feasible as possible that we need to remove someone. There are many possible impediments in terms of removal. There are appeals processes. Because the system is based on natural justice, there has to be an appeal process, and there can be many appeal processes.

We need to have a country that is collaborative. In many cases, we don't have any passports. We don't have any travel documents. We need to obtain travel documents. The person also needs to collaborate. We need to arrange with the airline to make sure of the safety and security of the people on the airplane.

There are a number of appeals. There are a number of steps. If that all lines up very well, it can all go very quickly, or it can take very long if it doesn't.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Davies has up to seven minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ms. Deschênes, I'm not sure I heard an answer to the question from my colleague. You said you have determined certain nationalities that you're going to roll out the biometrics plan for first.

Which nationalities are those?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I'm not in a position to give you that yet because I don't think we've completely finalized that.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Which ones are you considering? Is there a reason you don't want to tell the committee what nationalities you're considering for the biometrics, if you're going to roll them out on a nationality basis?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We are looking at criteria, which is what we're trying to do with biometrics, that would be involved with security, criminality, over-stayers, that type of thing, but we haven't yet finalized that list.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

You did testify that you're going to roll this biometrics program out on certain nationalities first.

Do you remember that testimony?

[Claudette Deschênes]

Yes. We're not going to do all at once. We're not going to do a big bang because that's not normally a very successful way to operate.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I understand. You've already given that testimony.

You won't tell us what nationalities there are, but there are certain criteria. What criteria are you applying to determine which nationalities you will apply the biometric program to first?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We're looking at operational feasibility. We're looking at criminality, security, over-stays, that type of thing, from a risk perspective.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay. Can you tell this committee when you get that information which nationalities the biometrics will be applied to first?

[Claudette Deschênes]

I'm sure we will be telling the committee as soon as we can.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I think that's fairly important. When can you tell us?

[Les Linklater]

Mr. Chair, the process will probably take us until early fall.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

In terms of illegal entries, it seems like we're tightening up our security. Is it a fair comment to say that we're tightening up entry to Canada? Is that a fair characterization of the sum total of your testimony?