Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome to all the committee members.
I would like first of all to make a clarification to a response made by Mr. Bob Orr at a previous session. A member asked if the department had ever been directed to track if refugees were members of religious, ethnic, or sexual minority groups. The response provided was negative. As well, the department does track the nationality of refugees, but it has never systematically tracked the religion or ethnicity of refugees.
In a break with standard practice, starting in early 2015, the department was instructed to track if resettled Syrian refugees were members of vulnerable ethnic or religious minorities, or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, or intersex community as part of identified areas of focus. This work had to be done on a manual basis using case notes made by officers, as our systems do not track and cannot extract this information. This practice ended in fall 2015 upon the beginning of the major Syrian refugee initiative.
In May 2015 IRCC officials were also instructed to begin tracking the religious and ethnic affiliation of all refugees resettled to Canada. Officials had begun exploring the manner in which such a tracking system could be implemented, but this was never put in practice.
I will continue with my opening remarks.
Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee as it conducts its important study. My name is David Manicom. I'm the associate assistant deputy minister for strategic and program policy at IRCC. I am here today with Bruce Grundison who is a senior director in IRCC's international region.
I will take a few minutes to offer some opening remarks, after which Bruce and I will be pleased to respond to any of your questions.
Mr. Chair, as my colleague Robert Orr mentioned in his appearance before this committee earlier this week, Canada has a strong and long-standing humanitarian tradition of resettling vulnerable people from around the world who have been persecuted and displaced and who seek our country's protection.
Maintaining that humanitarian tradition and ensuring that Canada continues to provide protection to those in need around the world is one of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's central mandates.
So we take very seriously the challenge of helping vulnerable and displaced people around the world, and we are highly motivated to address this challenge with policies and programs that are both compassionate and effective.
Mr. Chair, over the past two days, you and your fellow committee members have heard many hours of testimony from a number of individuals invited to address you.
On behalf of IRCC, I'd like to take a few minutes to build on some of the things you have heard from others in this room.
Mr. Chair, a number of witnesses have discussed the possibility of broadening the definition of a refugee to include vulnerable populations, such as IDPs. It's important to remember that there are risks inherent in reopening the 1951 UN refugee convention, as some countries would like to make it more restrictive and to reduce state obligations to refugees. Canada supports the current definition, as it offers a robust roadmap for protection and for solutions.
At the same time we continue to engage with our partners in the international arena by aiming to use our country's position as a leader in refugee resettlement to further international discussions on best practices in protection. An important example of this is our participation and leadership in the upcoming international summits in September regarding refugees and migrants.
We are appreciative of this committee's work and continue to welcome proposals and input from committee members, from witnesses, and from other Canadians on how we can further improve our system. Like any well-run institution, our immigration system works best when it is flexible and can adapt to ever-changing realities and emerging challenges.
As you have heard, the source country class was repealed in 2011 due to challenges that made it ineffective and were affecting the department's other humanitarian programs. The department has maintained the flexibility to respond to specific and unique circumstances, and at present it does so through the ability to grant permanent residence based on humanitarian and compassionate considerations or public policy considerations.
I will give you an example of a public policy consideration.
From 2012 to 2014, in response to a request from the United Nations Refugee Agency following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Canada admitted 40 Haitian women and their dependents. These were single women who had been displaced, who had been subject to sexual violence, and who lacked other protections.
Humanitarian public policies are a tool the minister has under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to facilitate immigration for humanitarian reasons. They're typically used to respond to exceptional, specific, temporary circumstances. To that end, IRCC conducts monitoring of specific vulnerable groups who may be in particular need. The situation of the Yazidis who face grave violations of their human rights and terrible affronts to their dignity is one such group, and we continue to monitor developments in northern Iraq.
Canada's urgent protection program was also discussed this week as a program to ensure that Canada can respond to urgent requests for resettlement of those under threat of being returned home, under threat of expulsion, or facing direct threats to their lives. Canada accepts about 100 cases a year under the urgent protection program. Each of these cases is referred directly to Canadian visa offices by the United Nations refugee agency and processed with urgent timelines to ensure the refugees' arrivals in Canada in the most expeditious manner.
Mr. Chair, a central debate that has emerged over the last three days of committee meetings is whether our system, in its current form, is allowing us to reach and to assist the most vulnerable.
The committee has heard from witnesses able to speak first-hand, or provide secondary accounts, of the plight of certain particularly vulnerable groups.
At the same time, we must not forget about those vulnerable individuals who are not able to appear before us to advocate for their own protection or who do not have allies here to advocate for them either.
With that in mind, I will reiterate that the Government of Canada stands by its close collaboration with partners in identifying individuals in need of resettlement. Along with private sponsors who are an integral part of our system, Canada confidently relies on the United Nations refugee agency as the international expert best placed to identify protection and, where appropriate, resettlement need.
As you heard from the witness from the United Nations agency, the agency uses objective criteria established through consultation between all resettlement countries to make assessments of resettlement need. Referrals for resettlement are just one of a large set of protection activities the UN agency performs on the ground. Through this broader protection work conducted alongside local partners, globally the agency has gained the expertise necessary to make determinations of vulnerability. By working with the United Nations in this way and contributing to resettlement efforts for priority populations as identified by the international community, Canada is able to maximize our contribution to global efforts to assist vulnerable individuals.
Once again, Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this committee, and my colleague and I will gladly answer any of your questions.
