Evidence of meeting #56 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.
Liberal
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
I know we've had a conversation previously, but what basic competence is required for somebody to bring forward a client to the Immigration and Refugee Board as a refugee claimant?
Director of Education, Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council
We've increased the competencies in our national education manual. We've added competencies on administrative law as well as tribunals. One of the considerations that we are undertaking right now.... We've listened to the IRB. We've had meetings with the IRB, and you have heard what they've said as well about immigration consultants. We are hoping to work with them to determine what the needs are and further the education of RCICs so that those individuals appearing in front of a tribunal are competent enough to do so.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you for appearing before us today.
We've had many witnesses essentially speak to the dysfunction of your organization. I'll be blunt. I think it's given great concern to all members of this committee across party lines. With the time I have I want to express deep concern with the response to the letter from our chair with regard to the resolution that was passed at your board. One section of this resolution suggested that one or your members, your directors, would not communicate or make any statements to the media or elected officials that concern or are related to the corporation. In his letter our chair outlined our committee's concerns about the impact of that on parliamentary privilege.
When I read your response, and when I noted that you suggested this was an editing oversight, I found the timing quite suspicious and I thought this was very weak sauce. Moreover, as I read through the rest of this and read things you decided to include in your content like a line that says, “Mr. Dean fails to recognize properly elected or appointed directors etc.” and “In all correspondence, he refers to the Chair as 'Mr. Fake Chair'”.
I and all my colleagues get a lot of stuff to read, and we find this issue very serious in its impact on our immigration system. When I get eight pages full of garbage like this, I'll be honest with you, it's deeply disappointing. I don't want to hear he-said-she-said in a correspondence with committee members. I think it weakens your case. How did you think this level of juvenile writing was going to be of any impact or import on a very weighty matter that is before a parliamentary committee? Do you think this was respectful of our committee members' time here?
Chair of the Board of Directors, Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council
This has been a very challenging issue for us to deal with as a board, and we tried to provide insight to the committee in an honest way about how the resolution was put together. It is one where the timing of the resolution overlapped with the timing of this committee as things escalated within our board during the time leading up to the start of this committee in early March. The statements we were referring to were not the statements he made here at the committee.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
We have to go to vote. I'm going to leave with this. We have some serious allegations and testimony before this committee, and not just from this particular board of directors' member, but from the broader community in the efficacy of your organization to be able to address these challenges. For the remainder of this study I would ask that you and your board of directors have a serious think about what you're communicating to this committee in your role in this very important process to Canadians because this is not going to cut it. Thank you.
Liberal
