Evidence of meeting #81 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was family.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Currently, the option to appeal a negative TRV decision is to reapply or to appeal to the Federal Court. We learned from the officials, once again, that it's approximately 60 files that actually make it to the Federal Court. We don't know...it's 60 out of how many in total? Can you advise us why this form of appeal might be out of reach for some people?
Barrister and Solicitor, Long Mangalji LLP, As an Individual
First of all, judicial review takes over a year to be successful. Second, you have to pay lawyers to be able to do that. Third, most people don't even know what the appeal process is. Fourth, the court's hands are tied because of the high level of discretion given to the officers as well.
Partner, REKAI LLP, As an Individual
To reply to that question, the criterion, of course, for a Federal Court review is that there was an error in law or in the way the decision was approached. Most courts give a fair amount of latitude, as I think they should, to visa offices' expertise in analyzing the facts before them. They are not going to review the facts. People often don't understand that it is a legal issue. It's one of approach that is under review, not a rehash of the facts. That is what narrows the issues and the eligibility to be before the Federal Court.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Taub, when you were speaking of your need for exit controls, you were speaking of not doing criminal background checks for all of our TRV applicants who come to this country from countries from which we do not require visas.
My question is, for countries where visas are not required—the U.S., the U.K., whatever—we don't do criminal checks. We don't do any kinds of checks on anybody who's coming from—
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
I'm not sure what Mr. Dykstra is saying.
We don't do any checks on them.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Are we saying that only countries from which visas are required produce criminals, and that countries from which visas are not required do not produce criminals at all? Is that what we're getting at?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Thank you.
I'm sorry, Ms. Taub. I have to control the clock and we're out of time.
Ms. James.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Taub, I thought you made reference to the number 41,000, in terms of individuals in Canada without resident status.
Immigration and Refugee Lawyer, As an Individual
No, no, that was in the Auditor General's report a few years back. There were removal orders in place against 41,000 people whom they couldn't find. That came out I don't know how many years ago. It was in the former Auditor General's report.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Those were removal orders. Do you have any background...or do any of the witnesses have an estimate of how many individuals are here in Canada today without status?
Immigration and Refugee Lawyer, As an Individual
I think Immigration might have an idea, but they probably wouldn't, since there's no monitoring afterwards.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Right, and the three of you would be of the same opinion.
Barrister and Solicitor, Long Mangalji LLP, As an Individual
Yes. It's always an estimate. I agree that there should be some exit controls, but they shouldn't be just for people visiting from countries from which visas are required.
Liberal
Immigration and Refugee Lawyer, As an Individual
Sorry, I meant to say everybody who leaves.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
It's interesting. We're told that 35 million visitors come to Canada annually. Out of that, just over one million, from what I understand, come through visiting visas.
If you take a look at it from a percentage point of view, do any of you have any reason to believe that there's a higher percentage of non-compliance, regarding the rules to be in Canada, by people who come from countries for which visas are issued than by people from countries where they are not? In other words, are there more people here illegally from, let's say, the Philippines than from England? Would any one of you like to provide comment?
Partner, REKAI LLP, As an Individual
I wouldn't perhaps pick the Philippines, but there are certainly countries in the world where there is a push to leave—and we know some of those countries. Yes, there would be a likelihood of more of those visitors not returning on time than there would be in the case of visitors from countries without those issues.
