Many members of this committee met on May 9 with the Lives on Hold delegation that came to draw attention to the very difficult situation of nationals of countries to which Canada does not deport because of a situation of generalized risks, generally called moratorium countries.
Nationals of these countries who are not recognized as refugees are protected against deportation by the moratorium, but there is no sure mechanism by which they can become permanent residents and get on with their lives, even if they have been in Canada for over 10 years.
The Minister reminded the delegation that they can always apply for humanitarian and compassionate consideration.
Over the summer, a number of people found out in a painful way that humanitarian and compassionate grounds do not offer them a solution. A whole series of negative decisions have been received by moratorium country nations, that is by people who have been in Canada for over four years, and some six, seven or even thirteen years.
Among those refused was a Congolese family. Their father was among the delegation that met with Members of Parliament on May 9. This is a family that speaks French and English, the parents and the oldest daughter are all working, the younger children are doing well in school, there is no criminality and all are in good health. They come from a moratorium country and have been in Canada for five years.
What more can one need to be accepted? Yet, their application was rejected. The impact of this rejection is devastating for the family. Their children remaining in Congo have no way to come to join them in Canada and the children in Canada will have to give up dreams of post-secondary education. The parents must resign themselves to continuing in minimum wage jobs, even though they have a professional background.
Some of these negative decisions have been analyzed by the Lives on Hold Coalition. Our report, “Lives on Hold – The Limits of H & C”, showed that H and C decision-making is extremely inconsistent. Similar cases get different answers. This inconsistency is inherent to H and C because it is a discretionary process in which individual officers reach their own conclusions about whether humanitarian intervention is required or not.
There are many people in Canada without status, and the CCR urges parliamentarians to work on solutions for regularization. In the meantime, an urgent solution should be brought to the situation of moratorium nationals in limbo. Their case is particularly compelling, given the acknowledged situation of risk in their home country, which means that they cannot be removed. Everyone stands to gain by letting them get on with their lives.
We have two recommendations, then, in terms of policy. The first is to adopt a regulatory class providing permanent residence to all persons from countries to which Canada does not remove and who have been in Canada for three or more years. Secondly, in terms of process, we encourage you to invite the Lives on Hold Coalition to one of your meetings to learn more about their situation.
And there we conclude our presentation. Thank you very much.