That's correct.
Evidence of meeting #89 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 help.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #89 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 help.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
And that the number of GARs, that 75,000, should also increase out of the 2018 levels targets?
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming today and telling us your stories.
Ms. Sadrehashemi, could you explain quickly to us the priorities for different ethnicities to come to Canada and why it's not the practice of the UNHCR to differentiate based on ethnicity but to focus on vulnerability?
9:55 a.m.
Lawyer, As an Individual
My understanding is that without objective criteria, the task runs the risk of becoming arbitrary and fraught. I'm not saying that these special programs were arbitrary. I'm not saying that at all, because there was clearly a pressing need and an urgency. But there is the risk, and I think that's why the UNHCR has objective criteria based on need and vulnerability, that where you pursue special programs, especially “in the place of” instead of “in addition to” the general refugee resettlement program, the process could end up becoming based on a host of factors, for example, what stories are getting coverage in the media or the wishes of different community groups. It is very difficult, and so that is the purpose of having objective criteria.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you very much.
Mr. Clifford, in your experience, is there a critical mass of people that we would need to have in Canada who are part of a particular linguistic minority in order for us to be able to successfully develop interpretation capacity here? It seems that this is a problem that won't be quick for us to solve. Can we do it, and how long do you expect it would take for us to develop sufficient capacity for Kermanji interpretation?
9:55 a.m.
Director, Master of Conference Interpreting, Glendon College, York University, As an Individual
That's an excellent question. I wish I could give you a number to say, if x number of people were settled, then that would spill over into x number of interpreters. Unfortunately, I can't.
The one thing I can do is point out some of the issues that are facing languages of lesser diffusion. For example, very often in a small language community, it's difficult for the interpreters to work, because when they show up to a setting where there's a service provider and a person who needs interpretation, they're known to the person, and they recognize one another, because the community's very small.
One of the ways around that is to do what we're doing, and that is to train people online, because then, for example, somebody who lives in Toronto and who's trained as an interpreter in Toronto could work in Vancouver and vice versa. There's a lesser likelihood that they're going to then bump into the person they've interpreted for in the local community.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you. That's very interesting, Mr. Clifford.
To the Roses, I look at the location of the population of Yazidis around the world and obviously there's Iraq, and then Germany has about 100,000, Syria 70,000, Russia 60,000. While Canada does have a direct role to help them resettle and we're trying our best now to do it, it's fraught with problems mostly associated with the fact that there are so few Yazidis here in Canada. Does Canada have a role, and what is it, in demanding and encouraging other countries to do their part in taking in Yazidi refugees, countries that might be more successful at this?
10 a.m.
Director of Communications, Project Abraham, Mozuud Freedom Foundation
Canada has put itself out as a humanitarian leader in the world as a peacekeeper. I would presume, especially in the case of genocide—as I've mentioned, we've signed on to the 1948 Geneva Convention—we have a moral obligation.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
What should we be doing with respect to other countries? The genocide convention talks about prosecuting genocide.
10 a.m.
Director of Communications, Project Abraham, Mozuud Freedom Foundation
It also talks about protecting.
What should we be doing with other countries? Is that your question?
10 a.m.
Director of Communications, Project Abraham, Mozuud Freedom Foundation
We should be promoting other countries to do what Canada is doing. We should be spokespersons advocating for the Yazidis, noting that if Canada, Germany, and Australia can bring in Yazidis, other countries that are wealthy nations, especially the United States, which has a community of Yazidis, can bring in more Yazidis.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Mr. Clifford, this brings me back to you.
Is there a way we can try to develop a program for Kermanji translation by reaching out to Germans and Americans, and the populations of Yazidis in other countries, to help us develop this capacity? Ms. Rempel has rightly pointed out online that there's a real deficiency in our attempts here.
10 a.m.
Director, Master of Conference Interpreting, Glendon College, York University, As an Individual
Once again, it's interpreting we're talking about, not translation.
10 a.m.
Director, Master of Conference Interpreting, Glendon College, York University, As an Individual
Yes, is the short answer.
One of the things I can tell you about the field in general is that there is a very strong movement towards the remote delivery of interpreting services. As an interpreter, about half the work that I do is remote from my clients, and increasingly there are platforms that people can use. That's happening at the level of service provision. I don't need to be in Ottawa to provide service to people who are in Ottawa, and that kind of thing. It's starting to happen internationally as well. People are getting recruited for assignments that are taking place in other countries.
What we have yet to do in a systematic way is use remote platforms to connect people and make training easier and more accessible. For example, here in Toronto I may not get a critical mass that I would require to train with Kermanji, but if I were able to link up with other institutions around the world, we might together reach that critical mass. We're not doing that work yet.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
In terms of responsibility for paying for and funding the development of this capacity, where does it lie? I put this to each of them.
Who should be responsible for paying for this development capacity?
Mr. Clifford.
10 a.m.
Director, Master of Conference Interpreting, Glendon College, York University, As an Individual
I won't lie to you; this is not a money-making proposition for a university. The program that I run could not exist without external funding.
December 5th, 2017 / 10 a.m.
Director, Master of Conference Interpreting, Glendon College, York University, As an Individual
We have had federal funding in the past. Yes, I think so.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
I would ask the interpreter for Ms. Atto, who has helped you or paid for your training in interpretation?
10 a.m.
Interpreter, Cultural Interpretation Services for Our Communities
I'm working for what's called CISOC.
