Citizenship and Immigration Committee on July 20th, 2016

[David Manicom]

That's right.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Okay, so not for all refugees.... Why was it the case? Were you given a particular reason?

[David Manicom]

The government of the day had put in place a number of areas of focus to prioritize the processing of refugees from Syria, and asked the department to record at interview the matching, if you will, of the cases in question against these areas of focus.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

It just seems there's a lot at play here because there have obviously been reports about the Prime Minister's Office and, in fact, the Prime Minister himself wanting to be involved in the vetting of Syrian refugee applications. That fact, combined with the fact that there was an obvious order to track particular identities with no particular reason given, apparently, as to the desire being that these identities were in need of protection because there was a certain threat. There was no particular reason given in that direction. I'm a bit perplexed by all this, and, in fact, it seems un-Canadian. I'll go back to the point that I just cited about the Prime Minister's Office being heavily involved and, in fact, department officials being asked to do things in a way that does not match up with Canadian tradition.

In your experience, in all the years that you've worked in your capacity, has this ever happened before?

[David Manicom]

Nothing identical to that, no.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Okay.

I want to ask another question relating to testimony that we heard this morning from One Free World and its director, Mr. El Shafie. He said that a formal proposal was submitted by his organization to Minister Alexander, the then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Is that the case?

[David Manicom]

Yes, that's right.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

So a proposal was submitted and reviewed by the department and by the minister at the time?

[David Manicom]

That's right.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Okay.

If I can ask Ms. Jeffrey, we've heard a number of recurring themes here over the past few days. As far as a whole-of-government approach goes, I think committee members around the table will agree that dealing with vulnerable peoples is not a burden that can be placed onto the shoulders of one particular department, IRCC. This has to be a whole-of-government approach, and Canada has much to offer in that regard. Can you talk about that? Can you tell the committee what you think about that particular insight?

[Heather Jeffrey]

Yes, indeed. The challenges that are posed by protracted conflict situations in particular have shown that the most effective approach is one that combines not just humanitarian assistance, or development assistance, or resettlement, or other durable solutions, but an integrated and ideally jointly developed approach to deal with all of the facets of a crisis that affects vulnerable populations. That's something that was discussed at the World Humanitarian Summit. All of the countries that attended are actively implementing...as we move forward, to try to deal with what our challenges really are on an unprecedented scale, with such a large number of protracted conflicts that are remaining unresolved for long periods.

The Iraq-Syria crisis response that was announced last winter is really the first time that we've had multi-year humanitarian assistance, which is allowing us to jointly plan, together with our development colleagues, a continuum of response that allows us to respond first to the emergency needs—food, shelter, security—but also to bridge into livelihoods, education, the long-term needs of populations that may remain displaced or outside their homelands for long periods.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I want to underline and point to the importance of it. That's why I raise it one more time, Mr. Manicom, just to confirm the tracking of religious and ethnic affiliation that you talked about that applied specifically to Syrian refugees resettled in Canada, and it was not in relation to other refugees.

Is that correct?

[David Manicom]

Yes, it was the tracking of vulnerable ethnic or religious minorities, or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual community, as part of a number of identified areas of focus.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Could you provide a copy of the One Free World report to the committee? Can you answer whether the proposal submitted was approved by the department, and if not, then why not?

[David Manicom]

I believe the department can provide a copy of the report received under the previous government. The department analyzed the report in somewhat of a similar fashion as it has been doing recently to update advice and provide comment and expertise to the minister of the day. There was no decision taken to proceed at that time.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

What was the reasoning there? Did the report fail to meet certain expectations? Was there a problem with it in that regard? Can you comment at all on that?

[David Manicom]

To my knowledge there was no formal decision taken. An analysis was undertaken of the basic context. It was quite a preliminary one, and there was no decision to proceed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Rempel, seven minutes.

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

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Manicom. Just to be perfectly clear for the record, you were instructed by the previous government to track the efficacy of our programs' priority of prioritizing cases of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities for referral to Canada.

Is that correct?

[David Manicom]

The department was asked to track whether resettled Syrian refugees were members of vulnerable ethnic or religious minorities, or members of the LGBTI community as part of identified areas of focus.

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

Mr. Manicom, are you aware that many witnesses, as well as my colleague from the NDP today, have said that this needs to be a best practice in order to see if Canada is bringing the most vulnerable persecuted religious and ethnic minorities to Canada as part of its refugee initiative?

[David Manicom]

Yes, I've read the transcripts.

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

Thank you.

Was it the previous government's intended policy to prioritize cases of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities for referral to Canada by the UNHCR for refugee resettlement under the government-assisted refugee program?

[David Manicom]

Those two categories were two of a number of areas of focus.

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

Under the areas of focus prioritization consideration the previous government asked for, would it be fair to say that Yazidis would be included under that particular characterization?