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Department of Citizenship and Immigration Ombud Act

An Act to establish the Office of the Ombud for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts

Sponsor

Jenny Kwan  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 18, 2025

Subscribe to a feed (what's a feed?) of speeches and votes in the House related to Bill C-212.

Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment establishes the Office of the Ombud for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and sets out the Ombud’s powers, duties and functions. It also makes a related amendment to the Languages Skills Act and consequential amendments to certain other Acts.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-212s:

C-212 (2021) School Food Program for Children Act
C-212 (2020) An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (special benefits)
C-212 (2020) An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (special benefits)
C-212 (2016) An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (members who cross the floor)

Department of Citizenship and Immigration Ombud ActRoutine Proceedings

June 18th, 2025 / 3:10 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-212, An Act to establish the Office of the Ombud for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a private member's bill to establish an independent ombud office for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, with a mandate to examine the department's practices to ensure that they are fair, equitable, unbiased, non-racist and non-discriminatory. I thank the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie for seconding the bill and for defending the values of fairness, justice and equality.

New Democrats know that immigration is an exercise in nation building, but shortcomings in addressing biases, unfairness and racism at IRCC undermine this goal. If passed, the bill would create a dedicated oversight body to ensure fairness and accountability within IRCC and an ombud office that could serve as an impartial entity to address individual complaints and concerns, which is a gap in the system that every member in this House will know about. This office would also have a mandate to review concerns about differential treatment and discriminatory practices within IRCC and be empowered to look at trends and patterns to identify systemic issues.

Trust in Canada's immigration system depends upon its being just, effective and equitable for all. I hope all members of this House will agree and support the bill.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)