Citizenship and Immigration committee  We won't do that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to present our concerns on this bill, and particularly to thank Mr. St-Cyr who sent our request to appear to the committee. Action Réfugiés was founded in 1994 by the Anglican and Presbyterian churches in Montreal. Our mandate since then has been to assist refugee claimants who are being detained in the Canada Border Services Agency detention centre in Laval.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For those who have worked in immigration for a very long time—and it's a very long time—we once had a credible basis, a minimum de fondement. The idea at the time seemed to be almost identical to what we're doing, what is being proposed in the law right now. Designating safe countries is an effort or an attempt to minimize, to reduce, the number of claims.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, we hope today's intervention will have some effect on that. This is a humanitarian program, and it's a complex humanitarian program. Everybody agrees. Immigration is not easy at all. We're here today. As Action Réfugiés Montréal, we have also written our MPs. The members of our board have all signed this document, suggesting that this is unacceptable and that in fact it will not meet the goals of speed or of fairness.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you can only remove a failed claimant once they've gone through the entire process. The refugee appeal division, as Rick has just mentioned, is extremely welcome. We've been waiting since 2002, since it was passed, and we think it's wonderful that this reform will institute it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we would see some people sent back to unknown fates, having been refused their claim. We are talking about people. We've all tried to introduce human beings with whom we have worked over the last years, and refugee law is about people and their lives. In the detention work we have seen people excluded from making a refugee claim when that was their intention, and in some cases they have been sent back and ended up in jail.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In addition to those reasons, we want to keep the door open to humanitarian claims because we have realized that, on occasion, one may read in IRB decisions that some people who have been rejected as refugees should be accepted on humanitarian grounds because they are in need of protection, but they do not correspond to the definition of a refugee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.