Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I provide these notes, do I have to provide them in both official languages?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much for having me here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, of course, I would have several recommendations to improve it. One would be to deal with this issue of consultants. Victims spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on false promises and they get nowhere. That has always been a festering issue. But I am not proposing that thi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would also recommend looking into—I may be slightly off topic—the resettlement program. I have had clients who have come to me from Rwanda. I have had clients who have come to me from Afghanistan. They've come in through a resettlement program. They have said that while they gr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the biggest improvement is designating safe countries of origin. That's the one I would recommend the most. The fact that the government is now going to implement RAD for refugee-producing countries will also allow for speedier appeals for claims that are denied.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The list of safe countries of origin is not a fixed list. It would be a list that could be changed by the minister in reaction to world events, so it's not a fixed list. It's not written in stone. It can change from time to time depending on political events in the world. For ex

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not sure if I quite understood. I gather what you're saying is that if we're not addressing the issue of consultants, we should not proceed with Bill C-11.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't agree either, because while I agree that the scourge of consultants is terrible and contributes to the abuse of the system, Bill C-11 is attempting to address the issue of bogus claims in another way: by addressing safe countries of origin and having them go through anoth

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think by having countries of safe origin in a separate stream, as they do in the European Union; in some of the countries, they deal with claimants from their list of safe countries of origin within 48 hours to three weeks. I have all the lists here of how they deal with it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe that the Board should be reformed before appointing new members. I believe also that you ignore the fact that, according to some rules--I know because I am a member--members are obliged to put their reasons on paper when they disallow a claim but not when they allow it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, members must be appointed to make decisions, but I believe that decisions should be made mainly by public servants rather than by Board members because those latter appointments are highly political. Furthermore, I believe that we should pay much closer attention to the leve

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think we can establish a limit. I don't think we can establish a limit to the number of genuine refugees. That's why I think it's important to streamline the system in such a way that we can avoid having the system overrun with bogus refugees. You cannot limit the number

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Allow me to clarify something. Here in Ontario, consultants are regulated. There is an association that is supposed to manage those consultants. Unfortunately, I regularly get calls from clients of such consultants and I always tell them to make an official complaint. I try to he

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree that we should stop those consultants but there is nothing we can do about those from other countries. Our government cannot restrict their power, their practices, overseas. What happens overseas is terrible, I know.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Indeed, we should begin here in Canada but it should only be a first step. The Bill is a step in the right direction but it has to be followed with other measures if we want to stop those who abuse the system.