Nobody came out and said that to us directly. We heard rumours that this is what was being said about us. If indeed people were saying that, they obviously knew very little about those of us who were on the panel. We were all very committed to making this non-partisan and to picking the best people.
This type of rumour would have come about because of my background as a former president of the Canadian Council for Refugees and as an advocate for refugees for many years. If somebody thinks I was there to make sure we got board members who would say yes to refugees, then they don't know me very well and they don't know the CCR very well. It has never been my position or the CCR's position that every person who applies for refugee status should get a yes answer. It has always been our position that the system should be fair, and that's all I have ever been promoting.
I can tell you that none of the other members of our committee come from a refugee advocacy background. Peter Carver is a professor from the University of Edmonton. John Scratch, is a retired lawyer with the Department of Justice, who used to represent the Department of Citizenship and Immigration in many matters.
In any event, the answer to your question is that we heard those rumours. They aren't true. It has never been the view of our committee that we should be picking people for any particular purpose other than to be qualified and to be fair.