Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14th, 2023

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

They would get implied status.

[Christiane Fox]

Yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much for that clarity.

On the issue around how this happened and why it took so long.... One of the issues, as multiple students have said to me, is that through every step of the process, it was never caught: not when the application went in and not when they arrived here in Canada. It was not spotted by CBSA. It was not spotted when they applied for a work permit, for example. It was only in the final step, in many cases, when people were applying for permanent resident status, that this got caught.

My question is about measures to prevent this from happening again. Why is it that the government did not do the check on the documents at the front end? Instead, it's doing the check on what appears to me to be the back end.

[Christiane Fox]

It's important to note that—and this is part of the work of the department—in some cases, it was. Over 900 applications were denied, as a result of the fraud, through the same stream of investigation. Why was it that the fraud was detected in those cases and not in others? That is something we will undertake to review.

I would also note that there is, at times, a high level of sophistication. That's why we need to take a look at what tools we need to improve on. I think data sharing is key. If we know exactly how many letters of offer institution X issues every year and compare that against our system, right then and there, at the front end, we can make a determination that we have an issue or that we don't.

These are the types of things we're working towards for the reform of the international student program. It's not perfect. It's one step and there are multiple measures that we layer onto that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

It would be difficult, even if you know how many there are for the year, because it's different stages. If you get the number by the end of the year, let's say, some of them might have already gone through the system. Anyway, I'm sure you're aware of that and I don't want to spend my limited time going through that issue.

Are you saying that, for every application that comes in, there is a vetting process already, and that these are the ones that got missed somehow, for some reason?

[Christiane Fox]

Yes, every application has been vetted.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Maybe this is a question for CBSA when they come next week, but is it possible that some of these unscrupulous consultants who are identified, or at least known to the government at this point, might have been working in collaboration with Canadian actors here who are aiming to be part of the fraud or scam?

[Christiane Fox]

I think that is probably best placed with CBSA. I wouldn't want to dive into that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Okay.

In terms of the situation with the students and families impacted.... For the students who have already left or been deported, will they be notified that there's this alternative process? How will they know there's another way they can try to prove their innocence?

[Christiane Fox]

For the eight individuals who have been removed, we will be reviewing each of those cases and notifying them, if appropriate. If they were in fact genuine students who were here, they will be notified, yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That automatically triggered process for the eight who have been removed, does that include the people who left on their own, as well?

[Christiane Fox]

I would start by saying that the eight will be prioritized to be reviewed now. The task force will then undertake that.

Michèle, maybe you can speak to the 10.

[Michèle Kingsley]

Thank you.

The 10 who left voluntarily had not been referred to the IRB and there was no finding of inadmissibility for them. They can return. They can reapply to come back to Canada. There is nothing on their file that hints they are inadmissible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up.

We will now proceed to Mr. Kmiec for five minutes.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

To go back to this 2018 system that was introduced, does this system have a name?

[Christiane Fox]

It was just a letter of offer verification system, I think.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

It doesn't have a corporate name...? Is it an in-house software system of some sort?

[Michèle Kingsley]

It's a centralized group of program officers who would review letters of acceptance that were deemed by decision-makers to be suspicious. There wasn't an automated process.

It really is that, if a decision-maker abroad were reviewing an application and thought the letter of acceptance looked suspicious and could be fraudulent, he or she would refer it to this group, and this group would check the letter of acceptance.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

That's leading to the next question: Has a notice then been sent to visa officers who are processing these international student applications to tell them that the following consultants have made fraudulent applications and have defrauded other international students, so watch out for their applications? Has that been done?

[Michèle Kingsley]

Yes. All of the patterns that we identify of fraud—

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Has a notice been sent to all of these officers processing international student applications? I'm not asking for the process. Did a notice go out, basically, to watch out for the applications done by the consultants that you know have submitted fraudulent applications?

[Michèle Kingsley]

Any time we know that there is a fraudulent actor, that there is a pattern of fraud, that does go back out into the networks.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Okay.

Have any of the colleges in Canada approached IRCC at the senior level, at either the ADM or DM level, to inform you that they suspected there were fraudulent applications and fraudulent acceptance letters? I know of one case where they went and asked for some information from their college and were told that they weren't one of their students.

Have the colleges gone to you proactively? Has anyone gone to you proactively?

[Michèle Kingsley]

Fraud is top of mind for all institutions, especially colleges and universities, so it's an ongoing conversation with them in terms of how we do we work—

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Did they contact you?