Evidence of meeting #17 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was board.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
The big question will be the one that you posed: how do we in fact ensure that his wife and that business are not actually appearing before him as a decision-maker? He's already indicated, of course, that he would recuse himself on a case-by-case basis
But I think your question, if I don't misinterpret it, is how do we know this globally? What we have done in other circumstances—I'm not saying we're going to do this in this circumstance, because we're not there yet—is that we actually got undertakings from one spouse to the other that.... For example, the spouse outside the IRB would write a formal letter to their own spouse saying, I undertake not to ask you any questions about the board's business. I will not ask you to interfere or to look through data bases, etc.
Liberal
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
And the board member does the same in a response.
The members swear an oath of office. They sign a code of conduct to maintain impartiality, and once they are qualified—
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Okay, a couple of seconds, because I owed them to you from before.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Would you consider a request to examine the circumstances of Mr. Volpentesta before he is appointed or actually takes office, and examine all of the questions we raised here today and send a letter back to this committee to satisfy us that indeed there will be no conflict of interest?
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
No, I don't believe it would be appropriate for me to commit to that today.
I think the steps are being processed right now, today, as they are supposed to be processed. Mr. Volpentesta is dealing with his regulatory body and meeting those professional obligations. He will be dealing with the Ethics Commissioner at that point.
What I can assure you and the committee is that the board takes very seriously the impartiality of its decision-makers, both from the individual's perspective and that of maintaining the integrity of the institution; and I am absolutely satisfied that on the first day when Mr. Volpentesta walks into our organization to hear cases, these matters will have been resolved, because it is very important to us that we maintain the integrity of our--
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Daley, Ms. Setton-LeMar, Mr. Volpentesta, and Mr. Dolin, it is reassuring to see you here, to hear your presentations. I'm sure everybody here realizes, as you realize, that you've been grilled pretty thoroughly, despite your exceptional resumés and your experience. I have no doubt that you will carry out your duties with due diligence. It is a crucial and important responsibility that you have. You'll be determining who stays and who doesn't and how this country is being built. These are such important decisions.
Ms. Daley, how many appointments have been made? Are there any reappointments to make? What is left to be done? In 2006, when this government took office, about how many of them were ready to expire? Do we have adequate board membership, enough people to take care of the backlog as it develops?
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
At the moment we have a shortfall in our members. We have a funded complement of 164, and we have approximately 105. So right now we have a shortfall. But since last July, 25 candidates have successfully gone through the new selection advisory process. Those are appointments that have been made. We are continuing to increase the complement to be able to carry out our mandate.
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
If a candidate writes an exam and fails, can he still be appointed to the IRB?
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
No, he cannot. At that point they do not get an interview, which would be the next stage. Reference checks aren't done. In essence, that are out of the process once they fail.
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
That's encouraging and reassuring. I understand that in the previous government about 25% of the people who failed the exam still got appointed. That was shameful, and I hope it does not get repeated.
Mr. Volpentesta, my colleague asked a question and Madam Setton-LeMar answered it. You were going to answer as well, but time ran out. Would you like to comment on how your experience contributed to your current appointment?
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I think I'm having trouble—
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Your past experience, how will that help you on the IRB?
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I will draw on my experience in the immigration consulting business and in my capacity as executive director of CAPIC. During one of my interviews, I said I was trying to bring order to what was chaos. If you can do that, then you can look at the facts and judge things for what they are. I think this ideology, if you will, satisfies me that if I can follow it I'll have an easier time doing this job.
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Do you get any help with refugees from a certain part of the world? How do you get familiarity with that part of the world and the issues with a particular continent or country?
Perhaps Ms. Daley could answer.
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
As you can imagine, we're trying to deal with people from different cultures and different parts of the world. The IRB has many mechanisms. First, we have an extensive new member training program, which provides for the assessment of evidence. It's not easy to do this type of evidence assessment. We have an extensive, internationally renowned research directorate, which provides objective and impartial evidence on conditions in the countries we deal with. The members have an ongoing professional development program, in which members and research officers who are dealing with cases from a particular country get together to make sure they are fully informed.
One of the challenges we've met very well is the issue of rapidly changing conditions in a country. We all read the paper and see how things happen. We try to make sure our members are fully supported and always up to date on the situations in these countries. It's a challenge, but it's one we have successfully met, one that I expect us to meet in the future. It's the core of what we do.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Thank you.
I wanted to thank all members for appearing before our committee today. I hope you found it to be a very enjoyable experience—
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Mr. Chairman, could I have some clarifications, since we have the people here and they can answer us? I'm going to ask it of Mr. Dolin.
Mr. Dolin, section 64, which was referred to, talks about inadmissibility to Canada and serious criminality.