Thank you.
I would like to welcome you. You are from the Montreal office, a place that I visit quite frequently. Often, when I have a coffee just outside this office, I witness the crying and the many dramas that occur, but happy moments as well. I am pleased to welcome both of you.
Ms. Corriveau, you appear to be very comfortable answering our questions, and that is to your credit. Before we invited you, I listened to some cassettes containing your decisions as well as those of Mr. Jobin. Your good grasp of the field is, I believe, related to your experience, to the fact that you have worked at the college level and have sat on tribunals. In addition, you are called upon to meet people whose situation is not the best. When you hear refugees, you really have to show empathy and intercultural understanding.
This is the time to give you some kudos. Please accept them. The fact that you are happy doing your job probably explains why you are so very comfortable talking to us about it. In addition, you have been doing this work for several years, since 1996, according to my information.
Of course, I'm very interested in the refugee file. When the new Immigration Act came into effect and the implementation of the Appeal Division was delayed, your decisions did not change. The fact that the system was working differently did not turn you into a poor decision maker. Once again, this is to your credit.
My questions are more for Mr. Jobin. I am really finding it very interesting to examine these two appointments. Indeed, your skill sets are very different and yet you have both become members of the commission. In my opinion, we need to improve and look for certain skills in order to make the transition and subsequent integration easier. The people accepted by Ms. Corriveau have integrated into the community. I listened to some wonderful testimonies. However, the reaction with respect to Mr. Jobin was different and I am sorry about that.
I tried to understand why. It would appear that the IRB has been operating on a geographical region basis for several years. At the outset, you told us that you were responsible for North Africa and the Middle East. We know that things are not easy in this part of the world. It must be difficult to make decisions on these cases.
As for the skills required of the candidates, I compared the situation of a member of the commission to that of a PRRA officer. For the member of a commission, the candidate must have some prior expertise in administrative tribunals. Your CV does not show such experience, but perhaps you could tell us whether or not you have already sat on another tribunal.