Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 24th, 2017

[Dawn Edlund]

This matter has been considered by Canadian courts over the years. There have been many attempts by the private bar and disability associations to advance the argument that there is a charter violation, whether under section 7, “right to life, liberty and security of the person”, or under section 15, the equality provision. There has been no court decision that has found that there is a violation of the charter.

Are these difficult sets of circumstances for the families and individuals? Absolutely, but they have not been found by Canadian courts to reach the level of a violation of the charter. That said, I think it's pretty clear from what Minister Hussen has said that he wants us, in our fundamental policy review, to actively look at these kinds of questions and address them. As well, that's part of the material we are looking at.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I need to end you there. You got five minutes instead of three, just to let you know.

We are going to start round three.

Mr. Anandasangaree, you have seven minutes.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, panel, for being here.

I want to pick up from where my colleague left off.

One of the concerns is that processing on medical admissibility happens at the stage when we are ready to process the application, so someone would have filed an application in 2010, and six or seven years later, they are going to be assessed. We have the family essentially waiting for upwards of five or seven years to get a decision from the department with respect to admissibility. Then they go through the process, which could drag on, and potentially eight, nine, or 10 years later, they find out they're not admissible to Canada.

I think the fact that somebody is waiting for 10 years and at the end isn't allowed to come here is highly problematic. How do we make sure this kind of assessment happens ahead of time so that the family doesn't have to wait that long?

[Dawn Edlund]

From a processing perspective, we have at times done what are called upfront medicals, meaning that before people actually apply, they do their immigration medical exams. Since we've instituted, though, our electronic examination of medical examinations, called eMedico, the lengthy delays that we used to see for the medical examination and assessment process are no longer the case.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Just to clarify, the delay is not the medical itself. The delays are in processing, and the medical actually takes place at essentially the last phase.

Are upfront medicals available to everyone? Is that by invitation, or is that by someone who may have a concern about admissibility at the initial stages?

[Dawn Edlund]

We tend to discourage upfront medicals now. It's more complicated from a processing perspective for us to have a medical result in the system when we don't have a file to attach it to, because we don't have the application yet.

As I said, with eMedico, the results come much more quickly—

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Essentially, the point is that someone could wait for up to seven years or more, and then be deemed inadmissible based on their medical condition. Is that right? That's what we're basically saying.

[Dawn Edlund]

The number of spaces in the annual levels plan dictates how many visas we can issue in a given category in any particular year, for example, and if there's unlimited intake, then that builds big inventories of applications, as we saw in the recent program.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

We understand that is a timeline for some categories, and it's common knowledge.

Getting on to the issue of excessive demand with respect to education, how does a doctor in another jurisdiction look at something like autism, and what kind of impact will that have on education at the school? What kind of training must the doctor have to assess the kind of demand that will be imposed and the kind of support the individual child may require at the school itself?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

Autism is a spectrum disorder, and one person could be a very high-functioning child. Again, it's not just the diagnosis that will exclude children or make them inadmissible.

We look at the reports provided by the applicant from the specialist, such as a child developmental specialist or a psychologist, or a school report. Those detailed reports are reviewed by medical officers, and we look at the frequency of services required and the breadth of services required.

It's based on the report submitted by the applicant in support of their medical.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

It's not only the medical examiners that make that determination, correct?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

That's correct. They don't make the final judgment.

We look at all the reports, all the information, and then do our analysis. We then come up with the detailed list of services—social services, special education plans—and then make our recommendations.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Potentially, for a child with autism, regardless of the spectrum, the costs will exceed $6,300 a year. While we may not exclude individuals because of autism, essentially de facto they're excluded, because that is the cost of supporting those children through the school system. Am I correct?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

Yes. It's like any other medical diagnosis as well. If the cost of required services exceeds the threshold, they can potentially be rejected.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

How many children with autism have we admitted in the last year?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

I have a number here. We can provide it to the committee.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Do you have it? Can you share it?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

With autism, there were 37 who were made inadmissible in 2014. In 2015, there were 16, and in 2016, there were 23.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

That's in the last three years.

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

Yes.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

How many were able to provide support or were able to meet the threshold of $33,000?

[Dr. Arshad Saeed]

How many were less than that?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

How many children with autism did we admit? These are the ones who were excluded. This is the first stage of the adjudication.

[Dawn Edlund]

To clarify, this is the medical officer's recommendation, which then goes through the procedural fairness process, etc. That can take a bit of time.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

How many have been...?