Citizenship and Immigration Committee on July 18th, 2016

[Robert Orr]

That is correct.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Can the Chair remind me when I'm about two minutes away?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You are at two minutes and 20 seconds.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

I'll pass my time over to Ali then.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I have two minutes?

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I just had a very brief question, given all the things we have heard so far.

First of all, as I understand, on a yearly basis, the department meets with various countries and the UNHCR officials who are operating in those relevant countries. Are there any upcoming meetings that would be taking place with UNHCR staff in Turkey?

[Robert Orr]

We have regular meetings with the UNHCR in the countries where we operate, but we have permanent staff based in Geneva as well, so we are dealing constantly with UNHCR headquarters on a whole variety of issues. But we are certainly also trying to identify those populations that are particularly vulnerable and where Canada can play a role.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

But there's no annual meeting that takes place?

[Robert Orr]

There are annual meetings as well. There are large fora as well. There's the major meeting that is held each September, so that is coming up shortly. As well as that there are the continuing discussions with UNHCR officials.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

I have another follow-up question. My colleague, Ms. Zahid, asked about the Yazidi community and whether any steps were taken from August 2014 to September 2015 in their regard. You informed us that no specific steps were taken. Were there any particular challenges that may have prevented the previous government from doing anything about the Yazidi community that would come to mind?

[Robert Orr]

I emphasize again that we did take some Yazidis, working with UNHCR, who did identify some Iraqis, including members of the Yazidi community, for resettlement. Those cases have been processed and some have arrived in Canada. That continues.

Canada had a very major commitment to Iraqis. We were to resettle 23,000 Iraqis, and we have exceeded that, in fact. There has been a major initiative in that area.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Orr.

Ms. Rempel, I understand you're sharing your time with Mr. Kent.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Hopefully. Thanks.

Mr. Orr, the previous government's stated policy was to focus—albeit not to exclude anyone, but to prioritize Canada's resettlement efforts—on ethnic and religious minorities as well as sexual minorities. Is this correct?

[Robert Orr]

Amongst other areas. As I outlined, family connections were also taken into account, and so on.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would you consider the Yazidi to be an ethnic or religious minority?

[Robert Orr]

I would.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You said that this particular process has ceased. Did the current government direct you to cease the prioritization?

In your previous remarks, you said that the program by which you were prioritizing this has ceased. Was it this government that gave you the direction to do so?

[Robert Orr]

Yes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

[Sarita Bhatla]

Excuse me, if I may add to that, it was ceased during the time the previous government wanted to look at a review to see how effectively it was working. After that time, there was an election. So it was actually ceased prior to the election, or during that period, to review how it was actually functioning.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

That's interesting. If there was a review that was ongoing to see how effective this was.... You've stated that to your knowledge you've never been given direction to track the data in order to make a wise decision on the prioritization of ethnic and religious minorities. Would you just like to clarify if you've ever been given direction to track the prioritization process to see the actual outcome of prioritizing ethnic and religious minorities? I'll just give you an opportunity to re-clarify whether the department was ever given a direction by a previous minister to track this particular data.

[Sarita Bhatla]

To track Yazidis?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

To track ethnic and religious minorities as an outcome of refugee resettlement efforts.

[Sarita Bhatla]

There were certainly many discussions with the previous government about how we do the tracking and why we do the tracking. There was no request to systematically track ethnic and religious minorities in our resettlement program.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

To your knowledge.

I'll just give you an opportunity to put that on the record.

[Sarita Bhatla]

Yes, to my knowledge, there was no request to systematically change the way we track.