Evidence of meeting #21 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Former Afghan Interpreter, As an Individual
We fought the Taliban for 20 years, and then the United States and the entire NATO left Afghanistan back to the same Taliban. We fought them for 20 years.
At the moment, we don't see any hope on what the future will bring to Afghanistan, but yes, things can be changed. We might hope that in the future it will go back to democracy, but at the moment, families are heading for persecution of their lives.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you.
Mr. Khan, do you want to weigh in on that point as well?
Former Afghan Interpreter, As an Individual
Yes. At the moment, I don't see any changes happening to their government.
I think what Canada and the international community need to continue doing is engage Afghan civil society and the Afghan non-governmental institutions. Just because the Taliban took over doesn't mean that the world should discontinue or disconnect with civil society as well as all of the other organizations for social causes. I think we should continue working with those people on democracy and peace and prosperity.
What I want to say more right now is that acceptance—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
I'm sorry for interrupting, Mr. Khan. the time is up for Mr. Genuis.
We will now proceed to Mr. El-Khoury for two and a half minutes.
Liberal
Fayçal El-Khoury Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
And thank you and welcome to our witnesses here.
Mr. El-Assal, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires that spouses in a sponsorship process prove to visa officers that their relationship is genuine.
Could you explain this burden of proving that a relationship is genuine?
And fill us in on the challenges it creates?
Director of Policy, CanadaVisa
What needs to be done, as you mentioned, Mr. El-Khoury, is that the couple needs to provide evidence of the genuine nature of their relationship. When there are doubts, this can delay the process and it can take even longer than the current length of time for the application to be processed and the decision to be finalized.
Before the pandemic, the service standard for spousal sponsorship was 12 months. It's currently 16 months for inland applications submitted within Canada, and it's currently 20 months for applications submitted outside of Canada, as I mentioned in my remarks. Earlier this year the minister made an announcement providing an overview of the efforts the department is taking to modernize the system. In that announcement was a promise that the government would bring the service standard back to 12 months for spousal sponsorship within this year.
Liberal
Fayçal El-Khoury Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
That's a very good answer. Thank you.
How do you explain the low rate of intake of immigrants from French-speaking Africa in Canada, in Quebec, and in the other provinces?
What is your opinion on the testimony of racism given by several individuals who appeared before the committee?
Liberal
Associate professor and research chair in Immigration and Franco-Ontarian communities, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
One of the problems with immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, especially francophone immigration, is the lack of immigration offices in Africa. This means that the challenges related to applications are concentrated in certain regions, notably Senegal.
With respect to international students, it appears that immigration officers were not aware that francophone post-secondary institutions outside Quebec wanted to welcome francophone international students.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you, Ms. Veronis. The time is up for you, Mr. El-Khoury.
Yes, go ahead, Mr. Seeback.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Before you move to the next person, I'd like to move my motion that I gave verbal notice of on Tuesday.
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
On behalf of the members, I really want to thank all of the witnesses for appearing before the committee. Thank you for your time and your input for this study. We have some committee business to go over. You can now leave the committee meeting. Thank you.
Go ahead, Mr. Seeback.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to move the motion I gave verbal notice of on Tuesday:
That the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration report the following to the House: significant delays in citizenship applications over two years risks disenfranchising Canadians who are waiting for their citizenship in order to vote. This issue is particularly urgent in light of the June 2 Ontario provincial election. The government should move quickly to address this issue so that all Canadians who are eligible for citizenship and who choose to apply are able to participate fully in our democratic life. In light of the situation, the committee requests a response from the minister, by letter, by May 20, outlining the actions taken, and further actions intended.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Seeback, for the motion.
One of the things I was thinking about is that we're actually in the middle of studying delays in processing; in fact, we just started the study today. We just heard from a witness about the significant delays impacting citizenship. I think Mr. El-Assal indicated that we're now up to about 500,000. I don't have the exact figure, but it's a significant number in any event. It would seem to me that it would be useful to invite the minister to come to the committee to answer our questions as part of this study. This was not requested at the time we initiated this study, owing to the fact the minister had been coming for other studies and we thought that maybe we didn't necessarily need to invite the minister for this one; I actually think we should.
Therefore, I wonder if Mr. Seeback would be amenable to changing his motion to say that instead of having the minister respond by letter, we actually invite the minister to come to the committee to respond to our concerns. If Mr. Seeback is willing to accept that, I will move it as an amendment to his motion.
Conservative
NDP
Liberal
NDP
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Ms. Kwan is bringing an amendment to the motion that was moved by Mr. Seeback.
Ms. Kwan, could you please read your amendment so that it is clear to everyone?
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I move that we strike the words after “the committee requests”, and add instead the words that the committee requests “the minister to appear before the committee to outline his actions and further actions intended to address this concern.”