Evidence of meeting #150 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 women.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Council of Women's Shelters
Yes, it really illustrates how women really need shelter. There is that risk of their being killed, so that's why they're there, and they need that security.
5:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Alberta Council of Women's Shelters
The federal plan, as I understand it, addresses federal departments. It's not national, so where women live is a postal code lottery in terms of the services they get and the responses they get to domestic violence.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
5:35 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for your presentations.
What struck me, in the three presentations, is the lack of resources, the lack of capacity or the lack of funding.
Mr. Cimbaljevic, you talked about the level of funding, but also about the funding model, which is not always stable and predictable like it should be.
Ms. Niazi, are you seeing the same problem? Is the funding of your activities too short-term? I am not talking only about the level of funding, but also about the type of funding. Does it meet your needs, or are there improvements to be made?
5:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Organization
Actually, we are receiving funding from two levels of government and also from other funders, foundations and others. The major funding comes from IRCC. The type of funding excludes refugee claimants and citizens. They are not eligible for that funding. When the claimants come here, at the first stage, they miss the opportunity to receive the services. That will be very difficult for them to catch up later, I would say. The province is funding, but it is very small funding.
Also, like my friend mentioned, the duration of funding for IRCC is three years. It's a huge application. There's a lot of work being done. There is no core funding available for that. If there were some core funding available for organizations such as ours and others, it would build their capacity. It would also give them some peace of mind and provide some certainty, because they don't know what will happen at the end of the funding cycle.
5:35 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
Thank you very much, Ms. Niazi.
Mr. Cimbaljevic, I am the proud representative of the Laurier—Sainte-Marie riding, in Montreal, where the village is located. Our community is enriched by many LGBTQ+ community individuals who settle in our area, in Montreal. Those people have often gone through very difficult situations.
I have a two-part question for you that does not directly relate to the topic we are discussing.
I know sexual orientation can cause difficulties when people apply for refugee status. Those applicants often do not have access to the refugee commissioner because their request is not based on grounds related to a crisis or a war. It is often difficult for them to declare their sexual orientation and apply for refugee status based on that. I would be very interested in hearing any comments you may have on this situation.
I would also like to know whether you think special programs should be established for LGBTQ+ communities.
5:40 p.m.
Human Rights Advocate, As an Individual
Thank you for your questions. I will be very quick.
I do believe that, when it comes to LGBTIQ cases, every case is individual. It's very personal. Every claim has to be its own, and that's the part where mentioning countries and their reports of progress on LGBTIQ rights can be very questionable, because we have Canadian international reports and U.S. Department of State reports where they can mention that a pride event happened in the country, and then suddenly a refugee and immigration board member can take that as a positive development and say, “It's safe in your country; there was a pride event last year.”
Pride doesn't represent stability in the country. Pride represents fighting for the LGBTIQ community. That cannot be measurable as progress in the country. Progress in a country is the protection of human rights in the country when it comes to the judiciary, law and police departments, and to any first contact that a citizen is confident to approach if their rights are violated. If they are not, that should be a measure to take as the Immigration and Refugee Board.
When it comes to camps and people who are outside of Canada, not inside, it's a totally different story with the UNHCR and the IOM and how they process these cases. Also, of course, locals who work for these agencies can push away these cases, because they can also be homophobic or transphobic in those cases. There are a lot of things that are streamlined. Every case is an individual case, and the reports, those human rights reports, shouldn't be seen blindly as proof.
Thank you.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Well, you get six, because everyone else had six. Five is six at this committee.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Thanks to all of you for coming and giving us insight into the various programs you have.
I'll begin with you, Mr. Cimbaljevic. This committee has heard several times about people who've identified as LGBTQ+ and are often persecuted and must flee their homelands, sometimes very quickly. What are the specific needs of refugees who are LGBTQ+ that may be different from those of other refugees that we are traditionally accustomed to? Also, as a follow-up, I'll just ask if you could say which needs we haven't addressed, perhaps, and which ones are being addressed.
5:40 p.m.
Human Rights Advocate, As an Individual
Because of the time, I will focus on one particular group of the LGBTIQ, and that's the trans community inside the LGBTIQ refugee process, and the newcomers who are coming, but definitely refugee claimants who are going through or have been through the sex reassignment process or who wanted to go through it. I think there's a lack of services there.
When someone is coming from Iran, for example, or countries where even being just a closeted gay is not allowed, and where you have a transgender person who cannot really hide it, they want to show that they belong to a different gender, the gender they feel. I think that community has to have a much larger attention in the process, because there's a language barrier and there are medications they have to receive immediately after arriving in Canada where, as a claimant, you—
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Are you saying that they probably need a more specialized social worker type of training or psychologist type—
5:45 p.m.
Human Rights Advocate, As an Individual
Exactly. I believe that as soon as they start the process as a refugee claimant, they should be flagged as someone who doesn't have to wait to be accepted in order to get medical support or benefits from the government because they have to wait until the hearing. Now, as we all know, all the hearings are postponed because of all the cases that are coming in, so there isn't much promise that the hearing will happen, and then they also have to postpone their medical treatment, their hormone treatment and things like that.
I believe that as soon as the person is profiled as a refugee claimant who is a trans person they should be allowed to get the medical treatment with the hormones and hormone therapy immediately and not have to wait for the hearing, because that can also reflect on mental health and everything else when it comes to settlement services.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Thank you.
Ms. Niazi, you deal with a lot of immigrants specifically from Afghanistan, say, where gender equality may not always be as strong, especially in rural areas. How do you think settlement services differ for men and women when they're newcomers?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Organization
How are settlement services different for women?
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Yes. How do you think they differ for men versus women from the same regions? How can we better cater to them to help women in particular and then also men get the services they need?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Organization
I see women's needs as very special and distinct from the needs of men.
We are not working with only the Afghans, as I mentioned. We are working with refugees from other countries, like lots of Syrians, Iraqis, people from Iran and other places as well.
Also, there is a lack of support they got back in their country. I don't believe it's a culture, but because they have gone through war and violence and they have gone through losses in their lives, women have more responsibility. They have to look after their children, they have to do their house chores and they have more responsibilities. Also, some of the women, because of the war and because of these things, feel threatened, and somehow they prefer to be housebound, and they don't come. They need more encouragement.
Also, abuse happens everywhere and because of the lack of systems in the countries with their wars going on and with the culture of war, they haven't received support for abused women. Somehow they have internalized it and because of many factors, they don't talk about that. They need more encouragement to open up and....
Abuse is a taboo in most of the communities. We need more encouragement to talk about it if there is violence and abuse against them in the family, more information and more support.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
What tools have been effective that you've found to encourage those who are abused to come out more and get the benefit of settlement services?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Organization
The first thing is to establish a rapport and trust between the settlement worker and them. Mostly the settlement workers come from a similar background, and they are sensitive to the services and don't push them, and they allow them to be open. That works a lot.
Usually there is also one-on-one counselling and also small group supports among the women who have gone through this abuse, violence and similar difficulties. There are support groups. They are open and they see that they are not alone and everybody talks about that. From there, information is provided and also they are given the choice to have an informed decision of what they want to do.
Similar to immigrant women and with refugees from other countries, as was mentioned before, the solution for their problem is not just separation. We have to work with the entire family. We usually work with the entire family, with the husband, the children and all, to reconcile.
We also have separate workshops and programs for men. When you work on the issue of violence and the special needs of women, men have to be involved, so we do it through that aspect.
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
We need to end it there.
I want to thank the witnesses. Again, I apologize for the somewhat shorter meeting than usual due to the vote. Thank you for your time and your testimony.
If any of you have anything by way of specific recommendations you want to submit to the committee, please do so in writing. If you have friends who want to do that, please let them know as well.
The meeting is adjourned.
