Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think they get more sophisticated. The more barriers you set up against them, the more complex they can sometimes be. I think the sheer numbers coming in by boat pose a major problem, but smugglers have been using forged documents and fraudulent documents for years. Mr. Showle

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can’t recall cases of major human smuggling there. In Sri Lanka, the boats hadn't started yet, and it's the irregular arrivals that much of this bill is aimed at. In Canada's case, they first began to increase in number in 1986. In Australia, as Mr. Showler mentioned, one of t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The example I used was the 152 people who arrived off the coast of Newfoundland in 1986. I was involved in that, because I had just been the high commissioner in Sri Lanka and had just returned. They had asylum in Germany, but I think it's reasonable to assume that they had heard

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, the term “detention” is sometimes equated to imprisonment, and in some cases, as Mr. Showler pointed out, people are kept in penal places. The recent influx of Roma people from Hungary, in fact, is probably mostly kept in hotels, and the space available for the Cana

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a good question, Monsieur Giguère. The new act does give the minister more authority, but it brings us in line with what most other countries do. One of the objections is having public servants do the initial screening, instead of having an independent body. There will be

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's very expensive. By the way, Jack Manion, who was deputy minister of immigration and secretary of the Treasury Board—he's now deceased—estimated before a Senate committee that the whole system costs us several billion dollars a year. The kind of problem we have is illustra

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't say they have it all right in all respects. Australia, when it intercepted boats and had the claimants processed overseas, did it because, as one minister of immigration there said—this was after the Iraqi war started—that the UN considered that only 10% to 15% of the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I didn't interview them myself, but in certain communities, quite a substantial number of the people who had terrorist connections came in as refugee claimants.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I wouldn't say that biometric screening is going to screen out too many terrorists, but I think it's good for other reasons.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, who applies and who arrives. I like the biometric part. I just don't think it goes far enough, either.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The ones that would be processed more quickly, of course, are those from designated countries such as the United States, and we have hundreds every year from the United States. First of all, these clog up the system with people who are almost never going to get refugee status bu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chairman. I will try to stick to my 10 minutes this time. Canada has a long and impressive record of providing protection to refugees. In per capita terms we're among the world leaders with respect to how many refugees we resettle from overseas, as well as the number

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As for the immigrants, I think better selection is going to have a better match of their skills with what we require. For instance, on credentials, the Australians require that before someone gets a visa, their credentials are going to be accepted in Australia. On the other ques

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Americans do have a portion of their immigration program that is a lottery. I think that's ridiculous. I think you have to set your caps and then decide on what basis you're going to accept applications. Up until now it's been based on who makes their application first, and

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, first of all, yes, the statement that increasing the labour force will depend entirely on immigration is correct. In a sense, I've already answered that, though. The increase in the size of the population or the labour force is irrelevant, and I think in that sense that sta