Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 17th, 2016

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

Has the Canadian government, have any officials from Immigration and Citizenship Canada, been in contact with you yet in terms of the best practice that you've established?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

Yes, we have had repeated phone calls and the like and an exchange of documents, so yes, there is an exchange going on.

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

The Canadian government, then, is now in possession, is it, of the best practice that you use to select and identify girls in Iraq?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

Yes.

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

Excellent.

Did they give you any indication that they would be interested in using those criteria to extract people out of Iraq?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

They were just interested in getting our experiences to help inform a good decision. They haven't told us up to now what their program will be, but they asked for our experience and asked, for example, about the difference between taking from other states, such as Turkey or Jordan, or taking emergency cases from Iraq. I think these are two ways to go, and the Canadian government has to decide between or, I would say, maybe mix these approaches.

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

Excellent.

You mentioned that you utilized NGOs on the ground to identify these refugees. Which NGOs were those?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

We had two NGO partners. Those were Air Bridge Iraq and the International Organization for Migration. These were our two partners, and therefore on the ground we got a lot of references from churches and from NGOs working on the ground. Sometimes it was something like a foundation; sometimes it was just one case; and sometimes they referred many cases to us.

Just as an example, the Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany referred some cases to us.

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

You mentioned that you also extracted some Christian and Muslim minorities that had been in captivity. Does Germany consider that genocide is being conducted against those groups as well, at the hands of ISIS?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

I don't know whether the German government has spoken out about that, but I've been in Sinjar. We've seen the signs, we've seen the mass graves, and from having worked there, I clearly say that it's a genocide that is going on there.

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

In terms of the treatment of these women, have you now established some best practice of how to support these women when they come to Germany, and would you be willing to share that with our committee, with some documentation?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

Of course. For example, we did congresses with social workers. Professor Kizilhan wrote a book with best practice examples. I would be honoured to invite you, members of Parliament, to come and see how the women and children are doing here, to see what works and what's not working. You are invited to come to Baden-Württemberg to to visit them.

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

Thank you. That's a very interesting offer.

You mentioned that you established your own criteria that you used with NGOs to select.... You mentioned a questionnaire or a checklist. Could you provide a copy of that to our committee?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

Of course.

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

Excellent. What were some of the key criteria that you used?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

The key criteria were that they had been in the hands of Daesh; that they had suffered traumatizing violence, especially sexual violence but also, for example, forced conversions; and that they had broken family structures. If the family was intact, if the husband was available, normally we wouldn't choose people to come then. These were the three main criteria.

Maybe Professor Kizilhan can say something about it, because he did the evaluation on that.

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

I'm sorry to cut you short, but I have only one minute left.

In terms of the time period that it took for you to establish this program and bring the women to Germany, based on the best practices that you used and the relationships with NGOs that you established, as well as the checklist, do you think it is reasonable for Canada to bring at least 1,000 of these women in a three-month period?

[Dr. Michael Blume]

No, I would say that you could start to do that, but we needed a year. Maybe it would be possible to do it in nine months or something, but in three months you could start it.

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

How many women were you able to identify once you had your processes in place on the ground?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 10 seconds, please.

[Dr. Michael Blume]

We had 1,400 evaluations, and they were chosen from a bigger number of references, so it wouldn't be a problem to find 1,600 more.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, gentlemen, for appearing before our committee today. Unfortunately, there are unexpected votes in the House of Commons, and we'll have to adjourn. However, the committee will be in touch with you so that we can reschedule the half hour or so that was cut short today in the hearing. Hopefully you'll be amenable and available to reschedule the rest of our hearing with you.

The meeting is adjourned.