Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today. We members of the CBA section spent the last several weeks studying this bill in as much detail as time allowed. As you are aware, it's a very complex piece of legislation, with major impacts on immigration and refug

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. As I said in the beginning, we have done our best to conduct a detailed study in the time frame allotted to us. I would be happy to answer questions on any of the issues raised in our written submissions. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The interpretation is pretty clear on the face of the bill. I don't think it takes a subtle interpretation of the bill to look clause 19 and see that it changes section 46. There's no ambiguity about it. It is a change. In the minister's discussions about this, there seems to be

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The differences are night and day. The normal detention provision under the act is that there is a detention review after 48 hours, then after seven days, then every 30 days thereafter. In the most exceptional detention regime that we have, which is dealing with security certifi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can say that my own practice is criminal and immigration law. I can say that refugee law by far is not the most lucrative part of my practice. I don't know any refugee lawyers who are making significant amounts of money practising refugee law. I came here for two days to addres

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In fact, it's quite helpful for us.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's very difficult. We have suggestions on a number of different clauses. The investigative detention provisions are of some concern. There are a number of concerns within the refugee context. The cessation provisions would be high up there. The denial of humanitarian and comp

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Regarding the designation of foreigners based on their mode of arrival, I think I can talk about the current system and the proposed system. The designation we are talking about goes well beyond the mode of arrival. Any group—even a family arriving by plane or by car—could be des

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that Professor Dauvergne, who will testify before you, will be able to tell you about the Australian experience. My understanding is that people bring their wife, their children and other vulnerable members of their family on the boat or other potentially dangerous means

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The problem actually has to do with this bill's lack of criteria and its punitive aspect. The only criterion is the mode of arrival. People should not be detained on the basis of such a criterion. There is no link or logical connection between the detention and the reasons behind

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee. I am going to echo the sentiments of my colleague, in that the security of Canadians is extremely important to us. At the same time, it's important to acknowledge that we can never be 100% safe. The balance b

Public Safety committee  I'd like to start by pointing out that certain parts of Bill C-51 are clearly unconstitutional. According to the bill, a judge can authorize violations of the charter. No such precedent exists in the law. I think it's important to stress the fact that none of the legal experts wh

Public Safety committee  I'm going to come back to the example of the Canada Border Services Agency. With respect to CBSA, what we're talking about is an agency that has enormous powers. It has powers of search. It has powers of seizure. It takes the position that any cellphone, laptop, device coming ac

Public Safety committee  The problem is that the wording of the bill is ambiguous. It's up to us to determine whether those people would be affected or not. In terms of a protest being “lawful", and I'm not sure what the corresponding terminology is in French, a number of people have made the following c

Public Safety committee  No pressure. I'll try not to go over 10 seconds. The brief addresses the impact that certain provisions in the bill could have on charities. As far as sharing information and responsibility are concerned, charities are being put in a position that isn't clear. In our view, th