Evidence of meeting #52 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 consultant.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Enforcement and Intelligence Programs, Canada Border Services Agency
As of the current date, there are over 2,000 cases, but those include immigration and customs. According to the statistics I received this morning, we have, I think, about 148 active investigations with respect to immigration consultants.
NDP
Director General, Enforcement and Intelligence Programs, Canada Border Services Agency
No, but I'd like to point out that, at the end of the day, for these cases that we're undertaking, it generally takes two to five years to build up a case, take it through the court system, and obtain a verdict from the court.
Director General, Enforcement and Intelligence Programs, Canada Border Services Agency
I don't believe I have that information on me right now, but I can get that.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Perhaps you could get that and also give the historical trend, maybe since the last report was done, just to give a sense of where things are at.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative David Tilson
You could give that to the clerk, Ms. Lutfallah. Thank you.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In terms of charges laid, it would be useful to have the information on the decisions, on the verdicts. Were they found to be guilty? What penalties were levied? That information would be useful as well.
Director General, Enforcement and Intelligence Programs, Canada Border Services Agency
In terms of the actual decisions, I think at this point in time we have a success rate of about 95%. We do have a very good track record once they are taken on by the public prosecutor.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay. It would be great to get the information on how many cases are brought forward.
On the issue around the Syrian refugee situation, it is under investigation. I think Mr. MacDonald took that question on.
Assuming, then, that there are some issues there, have you or the department made contact with all the people who were identified to be in question or allegedly engaged in bad practices or fraudulent practices? Have you identified the people who you're concerned about?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We have identified a number of individuals who we would put in the realm of possibly having something done to them. That could grow at any one time, the more we investigate, and it could also shrink down.
I guess the response to your question is that we have identified a number of people, but we have to go in with a very open mind, saying that this may change at any point in time.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In terms of the number of people identified, can you give us a sense of what that ballpark number might be? Are we talking about 10 people, are we talking about 20, 30...?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I don't know the number just off the top of my head.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Could you provide that information to give the committee members a sense of what some of the issues out there might be? That would be helpful.
Conservative
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes. I was looking to see if I had it in here and might be able to help you sooner.
Conservative
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As we're going forward with this process, what action is the department undertaking to warn people of this situation so that they are aware and not prey to this kind of thing?
Director General, Immigration Program Guidance, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
This is a very good question, because it actually gets into what Mr. Orr was talking about with regard to fraud prevention and awareness.
For example, this month overall is fraud prevention awareness month. A series of communications products are rolling out using social media as well as your traditional types of media, trying to reach a population of people. Of course, when it comes to the resettlement of refugees, we also work with the international organizations. When we identify any types of trends or any activities that make us suspicious, or when we think that people need to be aware, we also work with our international partners, because they—
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative David Tilson
We have to move on, Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.
Ms. Dzerowicz.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thank you.
Thanks so much for all the excellent presentations. This is an issue that concerns many people in my riding. I've had people come up to me and say that on a monthly basis their parents are paying some fee to an immigration consultant, and they're not quite sure why. When I ask them why they continue to do it, they say it's because they feel that they will be deported.
I hear both of you with regard to fraud prevention and word getting out. Is it only done in English and French, or do you have it disseminated into the community in other languages?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Overwhelmingly it is in English and French, but as I said, missions abroad will also try to engage in some activities to disseminate the message. I gave the example of India particularly, where we're making a very real effort to get the message out, hiring a full-time person to just deal with this.
We use a variety of different methods to try to attack this, realizing that it's such an important message and we have to use multiple methods to try to reach our targets.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Ms. Lutfallah, you had mentioned that you have a 95% success rate of the cases you're investigating. Once charged, are they posted somewhere? Is there a registry?
Let's say I'm an immigrant who is looking to go through the process. If I want to find out who might be someone I might want to avoid, how would I find that out?
Director General, Enforcement and Intelligence Programs, Canada Border Services Agency
Once we have a charge and a conviction, we provide it to the ICCRC so it can provide that information on its website and inform the population. That's an active, ongoing way that we do business with the ICCRC.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Do you find it an effective way of letting people know, or does it need to be more broadly advertised?