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.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
So she's still the managing director; she's still the owner.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
So the clients who go to your wife's company could end up in front of you.
4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
No, I would have to remove myself from those cases, obviously.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
March 12th, 2008 / 4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Absolutely.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
How would you know which clients or cases to recuse yourself from?
4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I'll certainly know of the old cases, because I can have a list of the ones that I—
4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
When I represent people before the board, there is a sheet that says which company is representing the person, so I would see from that.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Sir, was it an oversight on your part not to list Cannex on your resumé?
4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
It's there. I don't know which resumé you're—
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
The only thing, sir, that I can see is berto@canneximmigration.com. I don't see it anywhere else. It says “2005-Present, Cannex Immigration Specialists, Toronto...Senior Consultant”, but it doesn't state anything else. Under “Sidhu & Volpentesta Inc.” you have half a page.
From 2005 to the present is almost three years. Is there a particular reason that you left that out?
4:50 p.m.
Member, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I don't have it in front of me, but if I recall, I think I said that I had the same duties as at Sidhu & Volpentesta, or something like that.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
My question is for Ms. Krista Daley. Are you the lawyer for the board?
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
My official title at the board is senior general counsel, but at the moment, and I think this is clear for the record, I am currently the acting director general of operations, but I know a lot of stuff about—
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
All right, if a member of Parliament were elected and we were to go in front of the Ethics Commissioner, both of us would lay out what we have and what connections our spouses have. Is it the same for you folks?
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I really don't know exactly what this booklet is from the Ethics Commissioner. The way it works is that a member goes directly to the Ethics Commissioner; they don't go through us.
But on your other point, though, I do think this is not necessarily an abnormal situation where—
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
So you find absolutely nothing wrong that the wife of an individual who sits on the board has a 100% interest in an immigration consulting company? Does it not strike you? Do you not have lights popping up?
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
What I was just about to say is that this situation where you have spouses or people together in law firms is not uncommon in our organization, because people are hired—
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
But law firms are controlled by one thing; CSIC is not.
We certainly have something that is questionable here, so my question to you, Ms. Daley, is would you come back to this committee and satisfy us that there is going to be no conflict of interest, because from what I hear right now, we are prone to have a big one.
4:50 p.m.
Director General, Operations, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Well, what will happen when Mr. Volpentesta becomes a board member—on day one when he's a board member—is that he will sitting down with his manager and they will be talking about this very issue. Now, that is after he's dealt with the Ethics Commissioner and dealt with CSIC, etc.
And the big question there—