Evidence of meeting #25 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 ukraine.
A video is available from Parliament.
3:25 p.m.
Liberal
3:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses.
I think we've reached an interesting juncture in the meetings we're having on the issue of how to address the crises that exist and the great needs that are there.
On the issue of genocide, we heard compelling testimony earlier today about the need for action. How do we deal with groups of women and girls who are enslaved sexually and face horrific circumstances, as an example? We heard also from the Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan about the situation they are in. With regard to the LGBTI community, I believe some 63 countries have declared that it is illegal for someone to have a different sexual orientation. How do we deal with these situations?
On the question of prioritizing, I actually get all the arguments presented here about the inequity of prioritizing and picking out a particular group. Of course, not doing so also means that there are situations where particular groups are singled out and targeted with tremendous, horrific atrocities. How do we solve these problems? I think that is the question before us today.
Source country has been identified for the people who are inland and have no stream within which they can make applications today. Is part of the solution actually bringing back the source country classification?
I wonder if I can get a quick answer from everybody around the table. That's my first question, and I would like a quick answer, because we're limited to seven minutes.
3:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
We'll start with Ms. Desloges, and then we'll go to Janet and then to Brian, if that's okay.
3:30 p.m.
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
Source country is one possibility. Use of agency discretion is another possibility, which would not require a legislative change.
3:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Refugees
Yes, I agree. We regretted the fact that the source country class was eliminated. It did need some reform, but we would be very interested in finding ways to make it viable.
As Chantal has said, there are also other mechanisms that can be used and that can be more flexible, such as the use of TRPs, temporary resident permits.
3:30 p.m.
Chair, Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association
I don't know if I have much to add. I think source had problems, but there could be a mechanism to work with internally displaced people. I think it would take a lot of work to figure out what that would look like in terms of different environments to work with, the selection process, and getting people out physically. There are challenges. But certainly, thinking about how we can relate with IDPs as a resettlement tool is something to think about.
3:30 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I would then invite all of the witnesses to provide additional submissions to the clerk on that issue, on what you think the reform needs to be and how we can overcome these challenges that exist.
The second phase of my question is on the inequities that exist. Given that we have all these crises going on, how do we square this circle then? Can we, for example, keep the generalized priorities that already exist, which the UNHCR already processes? The government, by the way, when they brought in the Syrian refugee initiative, had already identified priorities as well: women, children, families, and the LGBTI community.
The problem that's surfacing right now, particularly, for example, in those streams that have been identified to be priorities, are with the LGBTI community. They have no way of tracking it. In fact, they have no idea how well we're doing on that score.
We need a different mechanism when we know that those individuals are at a particular risk. What can we do to help them make applications and get into the stream, likewise with the Yazidi women and girls and so on?
I won't name all of the groups that have presented, but in that situation, is there something we can come forward with, say in the source countries with these particular groups, that these are specialized programs we would target in that instance to try to address the immediate crisis that our international community is faced with today?
Again, I'll go around the table for quick responses because I think I'm quickly running out of time.
Chantal.
3:30 p.m.
Lawyer, Desloges Law Group, As an Individual
I think there are two separate issues here.
There is prioritization of refugee referrals from UNHCR, and also how you deal with people who don't meet those criteria. I think that all it would take in terms of resettlement is to let the UNHCR know that we want to add, or take away, these specific priorities for any given time. All we have to do is let them know that these are the kinds of people we want.
In terms of your other question on source country, the issue with source country is that it's everybody from that country who is in a refugee-like situation. That doesn't really help if you're trying to target a specific subgroup. I think section 25 would be more suitable for something like that.
3:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Refugees
I'd like to highlight the situation of Africa. More than a third of the people in need of resettlement are in Africa, but they tend to be marginalized again and again.
Of course, the committee has heard very many compelling cases, and I'm sure we would agree that they should all be priorities. However, I also want to urge that there are other groups you are not hearing about who probably have just as compelling stories and cases for them to be priorities.
The other point is to highlight the gender-related analysis. Canada used to be known for having a leadership role in terms of resettling women at risk. We seem to have fallen off on that side. I think it would be good for us to look again at the ways in which people are persecuted and at risk, particularly on the basis of their gender.
3:35 p.m.
Chair, Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association
I think one of the things we should think about is getting out of the silos of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and Global Affairs Canada, and even thinking in terms of different streams of immigration and looking for multiple tools to deal with situations.
We could look at a particular region or a particular country and the conflict there, and look at many different ways that we can solve it. Resettlement could be one piece, and private sponsorship in particular can be a piece of that, but it's making sure that it fits with everything else that's going on. That takes collaboration across departments, I think.
3:35 p.m.
Liberal
3:35 p.m.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you. I'll be splitting some of my time with Mr. Virani.
Thank you all for being here.
We've heard a lot of testimony. I think everyone will agree that the issue of refugees is not going to diminish. If there's instability and conflict in war zones, in war-torn countries, we're going to have refugees, we're going to have people fleeing destruction.
You mentioned eradicating ISIS or Daesh. Everyone in this room would agree with you that that is one objective, but there would still be more militants going up in the ranks. There would still be another militia group. So security and stabilization of a country is imperative. I think the international community needs to work very hard on that. Daesh is not the end-all of militant groups that are causing destruction. There are many others in the world, including in El Salvador, Honduras, etc.
However, I want to talk a little about prioritization. This is why we have a second group or an institution that looks at the most vulnerable. They have a set structure to look at the most vulnerable. We've been talking in this committee about Christians, about Sunni Muslim, about Shia Muslims. No one's mentioned people who maybe aren't even practising a faith. They're very vulnerable people as well. I think that's something this committee needs to add in.
I have a question to ask Mr. Dyck and Ms. Dench. You mentioned the need in Africa. I wanted to touch on that. You mentioned that the refugees are left out there and politicized.
Can I begin with Ms. Dench, and can you elaborate on that?
3:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Refugees
The caps that Brian Dyck was referring to have been particularly affecting refugees from Africa. There have been very serious limits on the number of refugees who can be sponsored out of Africa. The timelines for processing have been particularly long. The other constraints mean that it is very difficult for a private sponsor to put in an application to sponsor an African refugee. We are hearing a lot from our members who are of African origin, who point out the very vast and compelling needs in the region and who see that there is a lot of response from Canada—and rightly so, nobody is questioning that—to the situation in the Middle East. The scale of the problems is highlighted right now in Kenya, where the Kenyan government has said that it is going to close the refugee camps and create a forced return of people to Somalia, affecting hundreds of thousands of people potentially. Of course, there are many people there who are extremely anxious about that situation and there are many vulnerable people who are in those refugee camps. That's an urgent situation, which many of us feel is not getting the attention it deserves.
We can also speak of the situation in Eritrea, where very serious human rights abuses are going on. Canada has some level of responsibility in that we have Canadian companies that are involved in mining in that country and have been alleged to have contributed to the abuses in terms of the workers at those mines.
So I think we need to do more to pay attention to the situations in Africa and to respond to the refugees there.
3:40 p.m.
Chair, Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association
Janet touched on a lot of important things. I think one of the things we're seeing this year that's exciting, because the landing targets for privately sponsored refugees this year is 17,800, is a lot of arrivals from Africa. Very few new cases are going in, but there are a lot of arrivals. For many of us, it does feel like we're turning the corner and that we might get a chance to see more new sponsorships.
There are a lot of desperate people there. If you think of Eritreans in particular, they're one of the populations who are fleeing across the Mediterranean in large numbers. You don't do that unless you're very desperate.
There are people in Canada who really want their friends and relatives to be here because they're very worried about them and they feel very frustrated because there have been limits placed on what they can do.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Mr. Chair, I have a clarification, and then two short questions for Ms. Dench.
In the speech by Ms. Rempel, she referred to a television interview. That was with yours truly. She indicated that I failed to respond to why the government had been making a massive effort to settle Syrians as a priority.
This is what I said at that time on the CBC and what I'll say again now: it's because the largest international humanitarian crisis since World War II involves Syrian nationals. We've heard that of about 60 million people in movement in the world, 12 million of them are Syrian. I said that then. I guess Ms. Rempel just couldn't recollect that. It's quite apparent to our government, and quite apparent to the Canadian public, the magnitude of the crisis. Apparently it's not apparent to her.
Ms. Dench, thank you for your testimony. You used the words “dishonourable recent history” in referring to Canada when you said it had attempted to specify or favour particular ethnicities among the UNHCR referrals. Could you clarify that? Were you speaking about the areas of focus program of the previous government?
3:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Refugees
No, we were speaking about the selection of Syrians, knowing that the Canadian government was preparing to make an announcement in December 2014 of its commitments to bring in Syrian refugees. The announcement was delayed because, as we understand it, and which seemed to be confirmed after the fact, Canada was wanting the UNHCR to accept that it would discriminate on the basis of religion. One of the fundamental, basic principles of refugee protection is that it's a measure against discrimination, so it was completely unacceptable. Of course, the UNHCR was not willing to accept Canada's making such an announcement. We were ashamed as Canadians that Canada would be taking such a position, and we're glad that in the event, that has not come into place.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you.
I would like to thank all of our panellists for their insights, their recommendations, and the tremendous work they do with some of the most vulnerable around the globe.
Thank you so much.
With that, our meeting is adjourned.