Madam Chair, honourable committee members, good afternoon.
I am appearing before you on behalf of Spousal Sponsorship Advocates. I am honoured to be here to provide you with an overview of the situation and of the recommendations we consider important.
According to the Polaris Strategic Insights report results, racialized employees are marginalized based on their place of birth or the colour of their skin. Their applications are not taken into consideration for promotions, and they are kept in temporary contract positions. As a result, they cannot report discriminatory or racist incidents they witness for fear of reprisal. Have the staff and managers in question been penalized since the report came out?
In addition, it is clear that integrated systemic biases play a role in decision-making when it comes to immigration files. Immigration officers have preconceived notions on applicants from racialized countries. For example, some African countries are designated as part of 30 corrupt nations, and Nigerians are said to be corrupt or untrustworthy. According to an article published in CIC News on March 15, IRCC has a backlog of over 1.8 million applications. For family reunification, the backlog is 55,301 spouse and common-law partner files.
In January, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced that the spousal sponsorship application process was back to 12 months of processing for new applications. Recently, that was changed to 19 months. Why are there no solutions available to families that are suffering right now? The red tape must be reduced to clear the huge backlog.
One common bureaucratic issue is the loss of humanity for those who are being served. We want to make the staff in charge of managing the immigration process related to family reunification understand that what is involved are our most irreplaceable personal connections, as well as our families' mental, physical and financial health.
That said, allow me to share our recommendations to help eliminate the backlog in the family reunification category.
I will first present our short-term recommendations. The department must provide a special temporary resident visa for families by granting an exemption to subsection 179(b) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and really accept dual intent applications. An ombudsman's office is also needed to process complaints. Creating a position of ombudsman would reduce the number of cases the Federal Court and the Immigration and Refugee Board, IRB, have to process. Transparency would be actively demonstrated in the measures taken to resolve disputes, and families would not be financially strained. Couples who are recommended must also be interviewed. Finally, interviews must be recorded to avoid misunderstandings.
I will now present my long-term recommendations. First, immigration officers must be required to rotate every two to five years, so as to avoid familiarity and jaded employees. That rotation must also be part of the job requirements. Mission staff must be increased or missions must be added to improve the situation. For example, the Accra office handles 12 countries, and the Dakar office handles 16 countries. The department must also implement mandatory training on cultural differences, to be attended every six months by hired staff and visa officers. Transparency must also be prioritized.
In short, we are favourable to the study underway. However, you should know that many spouses are diagnosed with depression and that suicidal thoughts are on the rise. Canadian citizens and permanent residents feel betrayed. Bureaucracy has no place in family affairs, and all the families involved are victims of the system.
In closing, remember that no one is born equal, but that people born with privilege must lead by example.
I now look forward to your questions on the issues raised.