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.