Thank you for affording me the opportunity to be here and present on this panel.
I am an imam within the community of one of the largest mosques in Toronto, and a lot of the family members or spouses who have applied for immigration for their partners or family members from abroad constantly bring me the concern that it's been months or years and they're unable to have their families join them.
In particular, I see three areas repeated by congregation members, including questions from Immigration Canada about the validity of marriage, some of the questioning of individuals who are supposed to be coming to Canada to join their spouses or family members, and the issue of the the length of time it takes to process some of these cases.
When it comes to the validity of marriage, sometimes people who practise Islam are very conservative and traditional, so sometimes it's an arranged marriage. No dating took place prior. Families got together and arranged a marriage. When questions are asked about when the dating started or where the locations were where they met up prior to the marriage, there is no such data like this available. The particular individuals don't follow the culture that we may be used to here in Canada of how we date, get to know our partners and then marry.
This is similar for the concept of common law. In many cultures where Muslims live and where Islam is practised, there is no such thing as living together prior to getting married. These challenges delay the process in genuine cases when a spouse is trying to sponsor their family member.
In some situations, I've been approached by congregants saying that they have their first child and it's been three years or five years, but the immigration case is just not being approved.
These are some issues. I echo the sentiments of one of the witnesses in the previous panel that in the cases of divorce, it's very challenging. The amount of effort it takes for many clients to prove that they were divorced and the process that it goes through extensively delay the cases.
In some situations, because the cultures vary, women specifically find it very challenging to answer some of the questions.
I'll give you a simple example. In some of the cultures where Islam is practised, when we talk to someone whom we respect, oftentimes we're looking down. Women specifically, in some of the cultures that we come from, may often look down when they're talking to someone who's interviewing them. If the interviewer doesn't know the culture, they may assume that something is being hidden or something is not accurate and that's why they're looking down. It's actually a cultural element of respecting the person who's interviewing.
These are all facts that make things challenging when we assume that all cultures are similar to the Canadian culture or the Canadian context. The way we may get married, the way we date or the way we have common law in this context here in a Canadian situation is not the same. Judging each application based on our culture here in Canada can delay the process and cause individuals to be very far from accepting an applicant who is a genuine spouse or genuine family member.
In summary, these are some of my remarks for the panel.