Thank you.
The Canadian Council for Refugees calls on the committee to reject the proposed amendments in their entirety. Changes to the refugee system do not belong in a budget bill. The proposed changes would place many people at increased risk of being sent back to face persecution in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and of Canada's international human rights obligations. The inclusion of such changes in the budget bill is undemocratic and profoundly disrespectful to the lives of affected non-citizens. If the government believes that the proposed changes merit consideration, they should be reintroduced, instead, in a separate bill. To date, more than 2,300 letters have been sent to this committee in support of the position of our own organization and Amnesty International, urging you to reject these changes.
Denying access to Canada's refugee determination system may lead to a return to torture, persecution and death. Under the proposed changes, a person would be ineligible to make a refugee claim in Canada and thus to be heard by the IRB if they have previously made a claim in another country with which Canada has an information-sharing agreement. They will have access only to a pre-removal risk assessment, a process that provides much less fairness than a hearing at the IRB.
To illustrate the impacts, consider two sisters, both fleeing gender-based persecution targeted at them in their home country in Central America. One sister makes her journey across North America—inevitably with much suffering, but avoiding arrest by the U.S. authorities. She makes her claim in Canada and is referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board. There she has a hearing where she is able to tell her story directly to a member of this expert, independent, quasi-judicial tribunal. The IRB member has received extensive training, including on the chairperson's guideline on gender-based persecution, and has access to the IRB's well-reputed country documentation. If nevertheless her claim is refused, she can appeal to the refugee appeal division. These are all features that have earned for Canada's IRB a reputation around the world as a model for refugee determination. Many other countries turn to Canada's IRB to improve their own refugee determination systems.