Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 4th, 2014

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

To properly set up my next question, I would like to quote one of the objectives of our study. It reads:

“...examine how to better prevent vulnerable women from being victimized by an abusive sponsor....”

Do you have any recommendations to make so that you have better tools, practices or resources to achieve this very specific objective of our study? I would like to give you the opportunity to express your opinion on this.

[Lesley Soper]

I think it's a very important issue. The Canada Border Services Agency trains its officers who interact with prospective immigrants at the border and inland. The officers are trained to be sensitive to issues where the persons may be vulnerable, or in vulnerable situations. We work concertedly with service provider organizations, immigrant—

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I will stop you.

I want to make sure that my question was clear. It's not what you do, but what would you like to have as supplementary tools to help vulnerable women from being victimized by an abusive sponsor? Can you think of anything that would benefit you to achieve that specific goal?

[Lesley Soper]

I have no comment, specifically, to that.

[Supt Jean Cormier]

From a law enforcement perspective, I would say the following.

We review all cases of abuse carefully. It's something very important for us. Any tool the government could provide to us would be welcome. I cannot speak of anything specific because the cases brought to the RCMP's attention have already gone through the CBSA or CIC. In our case, it is essential that we have the social supports that already exist in Canada and ensure that maximum use is made of them to prevent violence.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

What do you mean by “social supports”?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

I am referring to social services.

There are women's shelters, for example, social services, and other support groups like that.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That leads me to another question.

To what extent do you work with partners in civil society, such as non-profit organizations? Do you work in partnership with them when you investigate situations of human trafficking or other related activities? If that is the case, do you know what tools would be useful to them to broaden their field of activity?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

That is a question that should be put to the agencies or partners. Yes, we do work in partnership with them and share information when necessary. If needed, we ask them to help us with victim support.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

So these are precious partnerships.

[Supt Jean Cormier]

Certainly.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Ms. Soper or Mr. Leckey, would you like to add anything?

[Lesley Soper]

We would echo Jean's comments that we rely heavily on those social networks and on governmental organizations to facilitate the integration of immigrants into our society, and to help where people are vulnerable.

I think CIC also spoke on this topic last week to this committee about the settlement services work that they do. Certainly, the CBSA benefits from that work immensely.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

The CBSA agents must ensure that deportation orders are carried out if the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is breached. Do they receive any training that helps them to identify situations of spousal violence or abuse? It seems likely that individuals with a conditional permanent residence status may eventually be deported. Would the agents carrying out these deportations be aware of the situation so they could show some sensitivity? As we know, a lot of life partners are victims of abuse and do not know where to go for help. These people dare not report abuse for various reasons.

What type of training or tools do you currently have to identify deportation cases where abuse is involved?

[Lesley Soper]

In the particular case of sponsorship abuse, we share the products developed by Citizenship and Immigration with the people we encounter in the field to make them aware of their rights, and what avenues of appeal and recourse they have as permanent residents in Canada. The Immigration and Refugee Board also makes literature available to make people aware of their rights.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

I'm afraid we've run out of time, Ms. Soper. I thank you and your colleagues, Mr. Leckey, and Superintendent Cormier, for coming and giving us your views on this very important topic. Thank you kindly.

We will suspend.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We'll reconvene, ladies and gentlemen.

We have three groups. One group is with us by video conference from Montreal. They are the Shield of Athena Family Services.

Melpa Kamateros is the executive director. Good afternoon to you.

[Melpa Kamateros, Executive Director, Shield of Athena Family Services]

Good afternoon.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay.

Siran Nahabedian is the social worker for female victims of conjugal violence and domestic violence, of Athena's House.

Good afternoon to you as well.

[Siran Nahabedian, Social Worker for Female Victims of Conjugal Violence and of Domestic Violence, Athena's House, Shield of Athena Family Services]

Good afternoon.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We have two other speakers: from the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario we have Deepa Mattoo, who is the staff lawyer and acting executive director. Hello.

And we have Mr. Kurland, whom we all know, who comes here often. He should be sitting at the table with us in fact, he's here so often. He is a lawyer and policy analyst.

Mr. Kurland, it's always a pleasure to see you.

[Richard Kurland, Policy Analyst and Lawyer, As an Individual]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You each have eight minutes. We will start off with Ms. Mattoo.

Thank you.

[Deepa Mattoo, Staff Lawyer and Acting Executive Director, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO)]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair and honourable members, I thank you for the invitation to appear before committee today for the study on how to strengthen the integrity of the immigration spousal sponsorship program.

My notes are very long, but I'll try to keep this within the eight minutes.

My submission will be focused on three points today: challenges faced by women victimized and abused by their abusive sponsor and better ways to prevent vulnerable women from being victimized by an abusive sponsor, and the consequences and any potential penalties to the sponsor; potential skills and support needed by the sponsored spouses, especially those abused and isolated, to succeed independently; and the unique challenges of the survivors or the victims of forced marriages in sponsored situations, and potential ways to support them better.

In terms of the challenges faced by the victims who are abused by their abusive sponsor, we all know about the recent changes since October 2012 and the introduction of the conditional permanent residence for two years. The changes were focused a lot more on curbing fraudulent marriages, and there was very little attention paid to the situations of the victims of abuse, although there is an exception, which has been introduced, with the conditional permanent residence.

But there are a lot of challenges. They include a lack of understanding of the laws of the country, as well as the fear of the police and the fear of getting to any service providers in order to access services, as well as the constant fear and threat of losing their immigration status, for which their families sometimes hold them to ransom.

It has been our experience that women trapped in such relationships usually have no one to turn for support other than the abuser and the families themselves. The abusers normally censor and restrict the interactions of newlywed immigrant women with family or friends and isolate them from any support network. There is a power imbalance between the sponsored person and the sponsor, and it has become more pronounced after the introduction of conditional permanent residence status. We also see that in many cases the sponsors and families use the conditional status as a way to threaten these women and expect those sponsored to live life according to the conditions of abuse imposed on them.

In terms of the skills that these women bring with them, there is an issue of the financial abuse that goes hand in hand with that. A lot of these women are actually given some money in these marriages in the form of a dower or dowry, or there is money promised to them in these marriages that is actually kept under control by their families. Either they are not given any resources in terms of the development of their skills, or sometimes the skills they bring in are not recognized by the Canadian job market.

As far as the unique challenges for the survivors of forced marriages are concerned, our experience is that due to the lack of identification of the forced marriage as an issue of abuse, it is difficult for them to access the exception itself, the reason being that once they say they have been forced into the marriage and that there was a lack of consent to the marriage, this marriage becomes void or voidable ab initio. They will be very, very reluctant to actually come forward and then maybe be blamed for being a perpetrator of immigration fraud. Additionally, the victims or the survivors of forced marriage not only suffer abuse at the time of the marriage, but in most cases they live in abusive conditions, and they have nowhere to go back to because they're actually, through this marriage, fleeing an abusive situation.

The suggestions for these three points are as follows.

Number one, while there is the exception due to abuse, I would like to submit that in the case of the breakdown of a relationship in conditional sponsorship cases, especially in the cases where they experience an immigration investigation triggered against them on false complaints of abusive sponsors in retaliation for access to services or a criminal complaint, the burden of proof should be lightened. They should be allowed to access this exception more easily. Right now, they are expected to give evidence of cohabitation, and they're also expected to give proof of the abuse. Sometimes that's impossible for them due to lack of reporting or access to the services, as discussed before.

Number two, it is our recommendation that under settlement programming for spousal sponsorship programs, there should be dedicated resources allocated that should not be restricted to language training and should be for counselling for financial independence as well.

Number three, there should also be availability of funds for sponsored spouses who are experiencing or have experienced abuse to upgrade their skills and education. There is a need to connect the sponsored spouses to settlement services as soon as they get visas to provide encouragement and opportunity to access Canadian banking and financial institution services, similar to what happens with other categories of immigrants, such as foreign-trained workers and business-class immigrants.

The five-year sponsorship bar that was introduced in April 2011 currently extends to the sponsored spouses, and it is recommended that in cases of abuse, this bar should not only be lifted but also be imposed on the sponsor's spouse or family who perpetrated the abuse. This is one of the punitive measures the committee is looking at today.

In the unique case of forced marriages, it is recommended that the definition of abuse should be extended to introduce the incidence of forced marriage as an issue of abuse. It is also recommended that special protection should be extended to the victims of forced marriages and that there should be a thorough assessment of risk along with the humanitarian and compassionate grounds assessment in the case of forced marriages where section 44(1) report investigations are launched and the cases go to admissibility hearings. It is recommended that special privacy and confidentiality procedures and policies should be created for the protection of victims of abuse, including forced marriages, so that the victims or survivors can confidently report incidents to Citizenship and Immigration Canada without putting themselves at risk of retaliation by the abuser or his family.

In cases of the processing of sponsorship applications where the officer in charge notices that the person being sponsored might be a victim of forced marriage, there should be an exception and the victim should be given special protection to be landed on conditional permanent resident status, as per the international commitment to protect victims who might need the protection of Canada.

Last but not least, it is recommended that Citizenship and Immigration Canada should raise awareness in the training of its officers and adjudicators regarding various issues of abuse, especially in cases of forced marriages.

I just want to say lastly that Canada should fulfill its international commitment to protect victims of forced marriage in the form of various signed treaties and recent announcements, and extend vehicles of safety and protection to the victims of forced marriages, not only when they're in Canada, but also while they are in their own home country at the time of the processing of applications.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you. You did it in under eight minutes. Well done.

Mr. Kurland, it's your turn.