Well, it has been a challenge for us to get our analysis and our information and all of our sensitization materials across to the front-line workers, and to the users of the services, and to the public in general. It's difficult for an organization to have that outreach, and those means, to go as far and as deep as the government is currently intending to do with that $1.1 million, through the advertisements to be introduced mostly in ethnic media or third-language media, as they are sometimes named.
What I have seen so far, in terms of the information that the government is circulating--I've seen it in documentaries at the CBC, for instance, with Minister Diane Finley herself responding to questions--is, I think, incomplete, inaccurate. We keep on hearing that this is a solution to the backlog, which is not true.
The other day I was interviewed by a journalist from a particular community newspaper and she said, “I just spoke to the minister five minutes ago and she says that these changes are not going to affect humanitarian and compassionate applications, and they are only meant to affect skilled workers.” We were on the phone, and I said, “Open the web page with part 6 of Bill C-50 and we're going to read it together.” And we pinpointed the places where it said if you are in your country of origin applying on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, you may or you may not be dealt with properly. If you have, in the case of family reunification, a sponsorship application, you also may be submitted to particular instructions issued by the minister.
The journalist was asking me, “So are you saying that the minister is deliberately misleading the public?” And I was like, “I haven't said that.” So she asked me, “But do you agree with that?” And I said, “Listen, all I have is the messaging that's coming from the government and you and I, both of us, looking at what the proposed legislation says.”