Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I might just use some time to make a few comments because we've had so much testimony in the last couple of days.
I can accept criticism of our government's approach. I am happy to do that. What I can say is that we did our best in terms of.... I think it was right to say that we were going to put a focus on vulnerable, persecuted, and ethnic minorities. I don't accept the testimony we just heard here that we shouldn't be doing that. I think it's very easy for us to become bogged down in bureaucracy, and I realize that we have to act quickly in certain situations.
It would be very difficult for someone not to be moved by the testimony that we heard from people in Ukraine, from Nadia Murad today.
To your comment, Ms. Desloges, I realize that while there are situations where people are affected—everyone is affected—there are people who are affected more.
I can accept criticism. Can the government realize that they need to act and change their position? I'm putting that on the table.
I was on a television panel many months ago with one of the members in this room, and he made a comment that we make no bones about treating Syrian refugees differently. But when pressed on why that was, he couldn't respond. I think that's where the government has an opportunity here. I think we do need to treat certain cohorts differently so that we can respond quickly to needs. That's not saying that somebody's case is more or less valuable, but there are situations, as we've heard from many disparate groups with many disparate political affiliations today, where we need to act. I think that's very important and I think that's something that we've heard loud and clear. I think we need to have clear criteria when we are acting in those situations.
The comment that not all groups can go home afterwards, I think is absolutely valid. I think, when we have a declaration of genocide, that's very clear.
Some of the witnesses said that the UN report doesn't deal with resettlement. I find that completely false. On page 39, paragraph 212(g), the UN itself asks us to accelerate the asylum applications of Yazidis. In my understanding—and we have legal experts here who might clarify this—an asylum claimant is someone seeking asylum and a refugee is someone who's had a successful asylum claim. To say that it doesn't do that, I think, is just crazy, and misses the point of the whole report.
As for the comments around bias in referrals, I certainly don't want to see our refugee process politicized either, but I think that we need to ensure that the principle of helping people who are facing genocide—for example today—needs to be enshrined in our immigration system when it comes to refugees.
I'll just very briefly ask for some comments. There's been much raised about the source country class—I think that's what it's called. I know in 2012 when subsection 25(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was implemented, that was done in response to the fact that we heard from the community that the source country class was not nimble or flexible enough, or didn't offer the minister enough immediate authority to go in and help people.
The criticism of how we operationalize that, I think, is valid. I think that the government has an opportunity here to direct the department on how to do that. I'd love to get feedback on that as well.
The comment around...and I know I'm burning my time, Mr. Chair—