Evidence of meeting #102 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was board.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
The entry exam should include substantive law in it. It should have basic international human rights law and refugee law as a part of it. They should have ongoing training.
The problem is that we know they have some training, but it's very opaque. The public doesn't really know what that training is composed of, so it's hard for me to say it should be this or that when nobody really knows what it is right now. That's a problem.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do you believe that a law degree should be required to apply for a position on the board for all positions, or just the appeal divisions?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
No, I don't think a law degree should be mandatory for any of the divisions. I think it's helpful.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I'm just following along on your comments that the exam is going to have a substantial amount of law in it and that there is an amount of law that a board member is required to have. If they don't have that knowledge, then it's off to the higher court.
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
Right.
I don't think at the entry level, when they're first sitting the exam, that there needs to be necessarily.... I didn't say “a substantial amount” of law; I said “substantive” law, meaning something that's topical to the refugee area.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Right.
Do you feel that all members of the IRB should be GIC appointments?
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What should there be, or do we even need any change from what goes on now?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
The process they have now would be optimal with the improvements that we've recommended here today.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Khan said the majority of them are public servants.
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
No, I don't agree with that.
Again, it could be a regional difference, but in Toronto it's absolutely not the case that most people are civil servants.
Conservative
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
There's a fairly diverse mix, at least in the central region.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Okay, so you're satisfied with that.
There are currently 24 Governor in Council vacancies on the board. That's according to the chair. Do you feel this is a serious concern?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
I think vacancies of any kind are a serious concern, because when you don't have a full complement of people who are making decisions, you get backlogs. When you get backlogs, you incentivize people with weak claims to make claims because they get the benefit of staying in Canada for a longer time.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
That's one of the reasons we're having these hearings, the backlogs.
Do you have a recommendation?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
They should be fully staffed up. There should be enough decision-makers to make these judgments within a reasonable period of time.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Then what's the problem? Isn't there enough money to make these appointments?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
To listen to the administration of the IRB, yes, I think that is the problem. It's under-resourcing. As far as I know, with this influx of irregular border-crossers that happened, which has increased the backlog quite substantially, there hasn't been a commensurate influx of resources into the system to allow it to handle that properly.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
We are told that there have been delays in filling up the vacancies of up to 500 days. Do you think that's the case?
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
I don't know the answer to that.
Do you know, Mr. Boulakia?
Lawyer, As an Individual
I don't know. Well, we actually heard testimony about that.