Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 16th, 2020

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

No. The goal was to spend my maternity leave with the family so that they could meet the little one and to give the application for permanent residence the chance to run its course. We really wanted to go through the process so that we could be allowed to travel between the two countries.

Our greatest asset at this time is to have the opportunity to raise our child in a mix of cultures and to travel the world. It's good that my child can spend time in both Cuba and Canada and that we can travel between the two countries.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Ernesto doesn't have the chance to travel to Canada and experience his relationship with you here. However, you're still asked to show the seriousness of your relationship at the end of the process. Do you think that the fact that you can experience your relationship only abroad is making it harder for you to do so?

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

Yes.

Our relationship is much more complicated. We must admit it.

At the age of 40, I may have wanted a second child. I turned 41 two weeks ago, and I'm too old for this. The immigration system ensured that I won't have a second child. I'm 41 years old. By the time Ernesto arrives, I'll be too old to get pregnant again. Not only was he denied the opportunity to attend the birth of the first child, but I won't have other children.

You choose people's future and you have unbelievable control over it, while people live in uncertainty. I also don't even know whether that future will happen.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

My next question concerns the fact that IRCC lost the medical record.

The doctors who did the test could still send it. However, the issue is that the medical record is expiring and will no longer be valid. Could the IRCC officials have admitted fault and decided to extend the validity of the medical record?

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

The medical record hasn't been valid since August. I haven't received any response from IRCC regarding whether they're giving me an extension. I have no idea what's happening. They aren't answering my questions.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

There's a lack of transparency.

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

They're saying not to bother them right now and that the officers at the visa office in Mexico City are overwhelmed.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I have one last question.

Usually, we don't ask questions when we don't know the answer. I don't know the answer at all, but I'm asking you the question anyway.

If you had known from the start everything involved in the process, would you have gone through it anyway? What would you have done differently?

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

Yes. I would have gone through it.

I don't think that I would have done anything differently. I did everything by the book. I did everything that the government requested. I travelled as much as I could. I gave everything that I could. I did everything that I could financially. I would go through it again and repeat the process, knowing that Ernesto will be with us eventually.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bergeron.

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

Now we will move on to Ms. Kwan.

You have six minutes for your round of questioning.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for their presentations.

I'm first going to go to Mr. Falconer and Mr. Chan. On the issue around Hong Kongers who are trying to get to safety, the government actually made an announcement last week. However, in that announcement there are no provisions or measures, if you will, for people who are in Hong Kong right now to seek refuge in Canada. There's no refugee stream that was announced by the minister.

Would you say that it is absolutely essential, given the dire situation of Hong Kong, that the government bring in a special measure for the people of Hong Kong through the refugee stream?

[Robert Falconer]

Yes, absolutely, and I would go back to the example of something like a source country measure whereby we are able to recognize somebody's refugee status within their home country to come to Canada. I would say there's actually precedent. The biggest example from recent years was the Rainbow Railroad program, which allowed Canada to resettle LGBTQ individuals from places like Chechnya and Iran to come directly to Canada and find safety here. Something that either exempts them under a policy option or creates a new streamlined [Technical difficulty—Editor] refugee resettlement is absolutely essential to help Hong Kongers and others who may be trapped in their own countries and unable to access travel documents to come to Canada.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

With respect to the people in Hong Kong, the minister actually mentioned family reunification. As we know, family reunifications are restricted to spouse and dependants, or partners and dependants if you will, and, in a very limited capacity, parents and grandparents, and we already know that is with the luck of the draw. This year that avenue is already closed, so it would not apply to people in Hong Kong in any event.

We used to have a program under which extended family members could sponsor each other to come. In fact, my own family was sponsored by my aunt to come to Canada.

Would you say the government should expand the family reunification stream to go beyond spouses or partners and dependants, and to allow for siblings and other extended family to sponsor each other to come to Canada?

[Robert Falconer]

Yes. Absolutely. I'm [Technical difficulty—Editor] this year and share my own family's experience. My own father was a refugee resettled [Technical difficulty—Editor] in the 1970s to Canada, and members of our family were able to come to Canada under a similar program.

I think this takes a longer-term view of what immigration and refugee status should look like in Canada for Hong Kongers and for others. I see a justifiable public [Technical difficulty—Editor or even a humanitarian [Technical difficulty—Editor preventing the application and admission of extended family members. I think it would be to the benefit of those families, and to Hong Kongers and people more generally, to have extended families here supporting each other in child support, helping each other out and providing a refuge.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm going to turn now to the student stream, the government's program centred primarily on students, which is extremely restrictive. For example, they have completely left out young people who might not be engaged in the post-secondary education system.

I'm aware that some of the students faced with potential persecution are, in fact, in high school, and, of course, there are those who are not engaged in the system at all in terms of post-secondary education. That doesn't mean they won't face persecution.

To that end, what do you think the government should do to ensure that those who also face the same kind of persecution as post-secondary education students would have access and means to come to Canada for safety?

[Robert Falconer]

It sounds a bit like a broken record here, but I think it is a good question. [Technical difficulty—Editor] international students, again, is the ability to recognize in-country asylum, that source country stream, and to provide exemptions through public policy from current regulations that exist here in Canada.

There is the very specific example of Hong Kong students who recently tried to flee to Taiwan by boat and were intercepted by law enforcement [Technical difficulty—Editor] to Canada. These are young students who [Technical difficulty—Editor] whether they were fleeing on boat, which is something we are very familiar with here in Canada [Technical difficulty—Editor] resettling refugees from countries who had to do that.

I think any new measures are good. I applaud the current government for doing that, but I think we need to look at the major gaps that are left, for students with less formal education and for students who might be past that five-year period, and their extended family members.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

The government's website notes that with regard to taking part in the Hong Kong protests, there's no guarantee that charges for rioting that are laid or arrests that are laid would not apply or would not disqualify them from accessing the immigration process here in Canada.

Should the Canadian government also exempt other potential criminality issues such as rioting or protesting in peaceful assembly prior to the national security law?

[Robert Falconer]

Yes, I think we need to understand the circumstances of that protest, especially what we might call “rioting” and we might call—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Falconer. The time is up. We will have to move now to the second round of questioning.

In order to end the session around 6:10, we will have, in the second round, four minutes each for Mr. Hallan and Ms. Martinez Ferrada. and two minutes each for Ms. Normandin and Ms. Kwan. We will start with Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Hallan, you have four minutes for your round of questioning.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for coming before our meeting today.

Ms. Bergeron, let me just start by saying thank you for the courage it took to share your experience. We've heard through our offices many heart-breaking and gut-wrenching stories, unfortunately, that are much the same.

I want to ask you, Ms. Bergeron, if you ever tried reaching out to your MP in regard to the situation. If you did, would you mind sharing what kind of experience you had, what they said and who they are?

[Emmanuelle Bergeron]

I tried four times to contact my MP, Mr. Lametti, the member for Lasalle—Émard—Verdun. Not much came of these attempts. In the end, I received very cold responses. He told me that he couldn't help me because he represented the executive branch and that he was sincerely sorry for my situation. That's all. I received responses of this nature four times.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience with the MP's office. Thank you again for sharing your experience with us.

I again want to highlight the family reunification. Now more than ever, especially now that we're seeing so many advocacy groups doing so much amazing work to bring it to light, and with the pandemic and the current system, there's so much urgency in getting people reunified.

Mr. Shory, you highlighted some points about families who get picked for interviews without any specific timeline. We heard through Ms. Bergeron's statement that these delays have a real-life impact on people's personal lives—such as missed birthdays and holidays. Mental and physical health are so important now, and they're being impacted by all these delays. With your experience, can you share some of the experiences of other people and what you think we can do to improve these interviews?

[Jatin Shory]

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, sir, for the question.

Very quickly, when we go to the immigration appeal division, for example, to appeal some of these decisions, we get records. I think everything should be recorded, even at the visa offices. I think it would really help streamline and clarify where the issues were at the interview and would allow people like us and the minister's counsel to come to a resolution more quickly.

The second issue is that I don't understand why we don't have video conferencing technology available yet. I'd that say 90% of my clients, especially where the spouse who sponsored is in Canada, just don't have the means to go for the interview. Ultimately, their testimony and their opinions—where perhaps they could have clarified certain issues—are just left out.

I think those are two very quick and obvious responses that could ultimately help to make this process a little more efficient and ultimately help families to reunite. We're around the corner from Christmas, and a lot of families.... I just celebrated Diwali this weekend with my family, and I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not be able to celebrate that with my family members if I were in a position similar to theirs.

I think those are just two quick solutions that exist and that are really easy to implement.