Thank you, Madam Chair.
Welcome to our guests: Ms. Augenfeld, Mr. Goldman, Mr. Bohbot and Mr. Tutunjian.
Mr. Bohbot, I think you appeared before this committee about six months ago.
Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, said that rights not balanced by responsibilities are dangerous. Even in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, reasonable conditions may be applied to some rights.
Mr. Bohbot, we have a refugee system of which most Canadians are proud. Across the world, Canada is known as a compassionate country. We here at this committee are proud of it. But there is a burden that we cannot continue to bear. At the moment, processing one refugee file alone takes an average of 1,000 days. Yesterday, we were told that, in New Zealand, the figure is 45 days. If we continue to do things as we are, we will not be able to process the files of genuine refugees quickly. But that is what everyone would like.
Do you agree that we should change the system so that real refugees have an advantage?