Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[Claudette Deschênes]

Certainly we have a case management branch at headquarters that deals with the exception or making sure that cases that have gone off the rails are dealt with. We have mechanisms to look at that.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Sure. I guess for—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Menegakis.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you again for joining us today, Mr. Linklater and Madame Deschênes.

Thank you to our new guests for being here with us and for your presentations. I found them very informative.

What is the difference between fingerprinting and biometrics, since we're going to be fingerprinting and doing biometrics? Is there a different way we fingerprint when it's biometric and when it's not biometric?

[Claudette Deschênes]

No.

Right now, when we do fingerprints, the system is very much paper-based. This new system will permit us to exchange these things electronically with the RCMP very quickly.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I see. Right now, which foreign nationals do you fingerprint?

[Claudette Deschênes]

We fingerprint all refugee claimants in Canada.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

With biometrics, we're adding a picture and we're going to fingerprint using the biometric method.

How will we know from the fingerprint who is inadmissible to Canada?

[Claudette Deschênes]

In part, it will be with the support of the RCMP, who will be able to check what they have through their databases.

It will also permit us to identify not only criminals but people who may have another name that they have used in the past. We're going to start being able to identify where people have used different aliases to get into Canada.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I see. You mentioned sharing information with the U.S. at some point.

That's one country. How about sharing information with other countries? Is there something in the works for that?

[Claudette Deschênes]

As Mr. Linklater said, we are already sharing with four or five like-minded countries.

[Les Linklater]

I think the key is that in terms of getting any adverse information on our client base, it's really the work that the RCMP does with their databases linked to a number of countries. They will be able to provide us with additional information for decision-making that we don't necessarily get now.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Last year we had 43 million hits on the website from people who wanted to come to Canada, and we allowed in 265,000 people. It's not just four or five countries that they're coming from. Which four or five countries do we do that with now?

[Les Linklater]

I'm sorry, I didn't understand the question.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Maybe Madam Deschênes can answer.

[Claudette Deschênes]

We exchange presently, on a pilot basis, with the United States, Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand. But the issue is that the fingerprints we take are sent to the RCMP. The RCMP has many other countries they exchange criminal information with, so we already have more of a base of information available to us.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I represent one of the most diverse ridings in the country. People from the countries you mentioned are a very small minority of the diverse community in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

The concern about some of the countries where we get a lot of immigrants is that I don't know if they have the kind of sophistication to be able to share information with us. Perhaps there's a security risk there.

Would you care to elaborate on that?

[Claudette Deschênes]

One of the other things that's happening around the world is the use of e-passports. Some countries also have biometrics in them. We're starting small and going to build on it, so that will permit us....

On the comment about people in your riding, and so on, some of the information we share with Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. is exactly about nationals from these other countries who have been either refugee claimants in other countries or have committed crimes in other countries. For us it's about criminals, security, and double or triple identities. It's all of those things that we're trying to do with biometrics, so I think it's going to be incremental work.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

On information that is available today, what criteria are used to question somebody when they want to come back to Canada? For example, I have one community within my riding that seems to have a very high percentage of Canadians who go abroad and come back, and there's a detention time at the airport. It takes them a few hours to get through, whereas their co-citizens come right through.

[Claudette Deschênes]

I think Monsieur Sabourin talked about the liaison officers who do interdiction, but also facilitate Canadian citizens coming back.

[Pierre Sabourin]

Our officers abroad are in 49 countries, and they're involved with a number of activities. Some of it is facilitation. For example, Canadians may be in countries from which we have to return a lot of Canadians; or Canadians have lost their passports and we facilitate their return to Canada. An example is North Africa, and last year we had to return a large number of Canadians back home.

They're also involved on an operational basis, very often at the airports. They interdict people who are improperly documented so they can't come to Canada. So that role gives an additional layer of security for the country.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Weston, you have four minutes. He took your minute.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I stopped.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our guests. This is very interesting, since the values we are talking about today are security, freedom and equality. Those are the values we, as Canadians, are interested in now.

Today, we are hearing from the Canada Border Services Agency and, of course, Immigration Canada. Which relevant agencies in charge of security are not here today?

[Pierre Sabourin]

In terms of security, our key partner agencies in Canada are the RCMP and CSIS. I think they will be here on Thursday. You will be able to talk to them then. Those are our two key partners in terms of security. We have agreements and work very closely with them.