Citizenship and Immigration committee  Very well, thank you. Okay, I'll continue. On the other hand, these same people can be released immediately after their refugee claim is approved, in other words through an IRB hearing in 60 days. How can the administrative tribunal decision maker be more sure of the identity of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration speaks at great length on the independence of the administrative tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board, or IRB, and how the decision-makers will make independent and impartial decisions. However, Bill C-31 raises doubt

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll disappoint you because I didn't come prepared for that question. I'm sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd just like to clarify that in Canada, according to the Immigration website, there are more than 920,000 visitors or renewals of visitor visas. So it's not 250,000. These are already permanent residents who came to Canada. The number is much higher. And 82% of these people have

Citizenship and Immigration committee  On the numbers, I didn't say there were problems with 1% of them. It was just an example. It was not from data that I obtained.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right. I understand. Could you repeat your question? I'm sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm surprised because all these people have to come with visas, and to get their visas they have to give all sorts of information to Immigration Canada's offices and to foreign offices in Canadian high commissions abroad. So if 1% of these visitors fail to be identified properly,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The purpose of CSIS is to gather information for the security risk of Canada. CSIS is really not here to provide proof, evidence, or testimony in front of the courts or to Parliament. We're talking about very limited powers of information. Once that information is gathered and

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My recommendations were at the end of my testimony, when I suggested waiting a few years to see how it works with Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. How cost-effective are the measures? Is it really improving the security there? Is it increasing th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Currently, IRPA allows Immigration Canada to take fingerprints of all refugee claimants anyway, so they are being processed. Biodata is being kept by them and they are being screened with other countries already. So the idea of a fraud is already covered, if you wish, by the curr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right, yes. Of course, if we make it a very large net, then it means that everybody is a security risk for the Government of Canada; even citizens are a risk for the Government of Canada. Do we all need to give biodata? That's a big issue. The government can say that if

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. I was asked to come to testify before you today on the subject of biometrics. Basically, this is an invasion of privacy. At school, we read George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. When we read them, we told ourselves that the author was describing the situatio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You’re talking about the immigration backlog? You can speak in English, if you wish. I do understand English.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There has always been a backlog in immigration. This is nothing new. The difference is in the quantity, really. It's only accumulating. So in 2002, when they implemented IRPA, there was already a backlog. The then government decided, well, they were no longer going to process t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, no, I'm not saying that. The backlog has always existed, and the ministerial instructions are trying to address part of that backlog--definitely, yes.