Thank you. I am the Program Coordinator for Action Réfugiés Montréal. As Ms. Williams mentioned, our organization visits the Immigration Detention Centre every week in order to provide legal information and moral support to the detainees. The centre is one of three immigration detention centres in Canada.
Although some people may be held in custody before facing a removal, one reality that is little-known and is part of our daily experience is that of asylum seekers who are detained on grounds of identity following their arrival. We believe it is critical not to confuse the cases of people in detention because of an imminent removal and those who are there on the grounds of identification, following their claim for refugee status.
We believe that the wait time for an interview during the first week after the claimant's arrival, as well as the holding of a hearing within 60 days, are totally unrealistic for asylum seekers who are detained. We are extremely concerned by the fact that these new proposed measures would be very harmful to them, both because of their right to seek the advice of a lawyer in order to help them to prepare their file, and because of the very great difficulty in obtaining documents or in being able to move their file forward as they are being detained by the authorities.
For example, a Congolese asylum seeker, who is fleeing the conflict and is unable to contact his or her family, because he has lost track of them for these very reasons, can be held in detention for several months, traumatized and unable to provide the identification requested. This situation is unfortunately the reality for several people.
We are also concerned by the fact that an official, during the weekly interview, would “help the claimant fill in the forms properly”. This role actually belongs to an independent lawyer acting as counsel on behalf of the claimant in order to protect his or her rights. This right to counsel is provided under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and should in no way be cut off, particularly in legislation that must protect such vulnerable people.
Since the detention facility conditions do not make the collection of documents easy—detainees must obtain calling cards, have no access to the Internet, the detention centre is far from the city—it is risky to force the holding of hearings too quickly, because this is to the disadvantage of claimants, who will not be ready in time. Moreover, as the refugee appeal section will be limited—both in its form and in its substance—we risk seeing a higher number of applications piling up in this appeal section, with people rejected in their initial appeal and ultimately rejected because of the restriction of presenting only new evidence subsequently. This would seriously affect Canada's reputation as far as the protection of refugees is concerned.
Moreover, because the proposed timeframes are so short, we believe that detention will be favoured, because of the accelerated process that Minister Kenney wishes to have, in order to keep better control of the situation. Because the effects of detention on asylum seekers fleeing persecution—who for the most part have never being detained in the past—are significant, we are concerned about the consequences of an increase in the detention of people seeking refugee protection in Canada.