Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 9th, 2017

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

Thank you.

Nadia?

[Nadia Murad Basee Taha]

Yes.

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

Okay.

Mr. Barber, you mentioned the figure of $25 million. Just for clarity, in budget 2017 the amount of $27 million was allocated to the Yazidi resettlement initiative. Our departmental officials noted this week that they'd reduced that amount of funding to $21 million.

Would you recommend that this funding be restored?

[Matthew Travis Barber]

Yes, I would. And I wasn't suggesting that this amount be used for reconstruction in Sinjar.

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

Of course.

[Matthew Travis Barber]

I was drawing a comparison between how much that same amount could be effectively used for reconstruction.

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

Would you also recommend that the committee perhaps or another committee of Parliament, or the House of Commons itself, undertake a study on what action has been taken in response to the other recommendations Parliament adopted in last year's motion? Again, those were recommendations 210, 212, and 213.

[Matthew Travis Barber]

Most definitely—and not just a study of the past, but a look at what can be done in the future.

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

On that, would you recommend that the Government of Canada ask the United Nations to undertake a follow-up study to the 2016 report entitled “They came to destroy” to look at what has been achieved by the global community, and to provide recommendations to the global community and member states for support of the Yazidis?

[Matthew Travis Barber]

I'm not sure I would leave that in the UN's hands. I would recommend that Canada directly engage with the community in Sinjar and conduct its own study on what kind of action it can pursue.

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

Excellent. That's a better recommendation. There we go.

Nadia?

[Nadia Murad Basee Taha]

Yes. I agree with Matthew.

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

Excellent.

I will use the remainder of my time as follows. We've had exactly four hours of study time on this particular topic. We've had witnesses suggest that other witnesses should come to the committee. As you can see, it's a weighty study. My colleague has also expressed to me that there have been some a discrepancies, which I believe she will address, between departmental officials' testimony and the testimony we've heard from the witnesses.

What I'm about to do is ask for more time. I'm also going to ask, in a formal motion, that the government actually table a response to our report.

On that, I move:

That, notwithstanding the motion adopted by the Committee on October 16, 2017, the Committee hold an additional meeting prior to December 20, 2017, on the resettlement issues related to Yazidi women and girls; and that the Committee report its finding to the House; and that the government table a response.

For the witnesses, I have just asked the members of the committee to consider an additional meeting here so that we can perhaps hear from survivors. We have not had them come to our committee. It would also require the committee to table a formal response with these recommendations.

My colleagues have a choice here. They can, in front of you, since we're at this meeting, vote on this motion—I'm hopeful that they will and that we'll extend this hearing and allow for a report—or they can adjourn debate, which means they're probably not willing to do that. I would like you to watch this.

I would implore my colleagues on this committee to put aside political differences for a moment and ensure that we have at least one more meeting to hear from survivors themselves who have come to Canada; as well as have a formal report drafted, given the severity and the seriousness of some of the recommendations that have been put forward today; and also that the government table a response.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

Just before we get into debate on that, there is another committee moving into this room at 11 o'clock, so we won't have a full debate. However, a motion has been put on the floor. I'm going to see if we need to debate it or if there will be a discussion.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a slight amendment, if that's okay.

I think our members might agree with that. I will agree with that, but the only slight amendment I would make is if we could hold that meeting after the new year. I think the government wants to get their target number. It was supposed to be 1,200 people before the new year. An update after the new year might be better for us to know exactly where we are, and then we can provide more information.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Just so you all remember, as chair I'm not that concerned about the government. I am concerned about the work of the committee and our timetable.

I need to tell you that we have three meetings available, unscheduled, in December. Modestly, I would recommend to the committee that we could take one of those meetings to continue this study. You might want to consider that. We have three meetings available and we have other witnesses we could hear from, but I want to give you that information in terms of a timetable.

Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would absolutely support this motion. We need to do this work before the new year. We have heard from the witnesses; there is ongoing and additional information that would be useful and helpful to inform the committee, and more to the point, to inform the government, I hope, in terms of further action.

It was always my view from the summer study we embarked on that this would be a first phase of the work that needs to be done, and that the initial phase of resettling the 1,200 Syrian refugees was only just a very beginning into the crisis and the genocide before us. There's much work to be done, and I would absolutely support this.

To that end, I know we're running out of time, so I'm going to raise a point of order at this juncture, that we have a discrepancy in the information provided to us by the IRCC officials. I'm deeply disturbed by it. The issue is the number of people who have been rejected. It sounds to me as though the number of people whose applications have been rejected might be greater. We need to receive the information from Mr. Elias so that we can ask the officials to provide us with an accurate response on that, and I would ask—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I will interrupt you. I will not allow negative comments such as that about the government officials in the committee. You have made an accusation about them, which I will not accept.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Chair-—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I will accept the fact that we might need to reconcile two different opinions.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That is what I'm saying, that there's a discrepancy and we need to undertake a process to get that clarified.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

That's fine.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I would ask that you ask the IRCC officials to provide that clarification.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Absolutely.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

The other issue for which there appears to be a discrepancy is the location to which people are resettled. From the report by the officials, I was under the impression that people are being resettled into areas where there are some Yazidi families and support, but it appears that might not be the case. I would also like clarity with respect to that issue.