Evidence of meeting #19 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was claimants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
You mentioned something about the bureaucratic mess you see from Ottawa. Do you get any targets or coordination from Ottawa in terms of resources or a heads-up on the influx you see, or are you going in blind most of the time?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
Yes, we're going in blind. Through different networking opportunities, we can potentially ask questions, but yes, we're going in blind.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
That's one more challenge. You have to have a cocktail in order to get that information out of them. It's a complete mess.
Just out of curiosity, if a refugee came to your centre and they had been charged with a crime or convicted of a crime in Canada—not back in their home country—and you knew about it, would your centre still provide services to that refugee?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
We've been fortunate enough not to be faced with this problem, so unfortunately, I cannot give you an answer from experience on that.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
If you knew about a refugee who had received a criminal charge or been convicted of a crime, would you still provide services to them?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
There would be a lot of questions for that person before we could decide whether to take on the case.
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
We'd have to know the nature of the crime and if it had actually been committed, instead of a wrongful charge.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
What about crimes like extortion or robbery, or something like that? Would you consider taking on a refugee—
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
I don't think I can give you a full answer on that, unfortunately. Our legal clinic would make the decision on that.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Would you still provide resources and legal clinic services to that refugee?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
Providing legal services would be up to the legal clinic. When it comes to other services, we don't necessarily look at people's criminal records when we provide them with language classes, for example.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
This is my last question. Do you provide criminal defence services to refugees by any chance?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Ms. Murad.
Next, we have five minutes for Ms. Salma Zahid.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses for appearing before the committee.
My first question is for Madam Macklin. Thanks for coming.
We have seen in recent years an erosion of public support for immigration here in Canada and for what we used to call the immigration consensus among Canadians. What do you suggest this committee recommend to help rebuild that consensus and to restore trust in the system? How can we help rebuild public support for immigration in Canada and the important role that immigrants can play in helping to build and grow Canada's economy?
Professor and Chair in Human Rights Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, As an Individual
That's a great question.
This is a real opportunity for leadership. There are always going to be anti-immigrant narratives circulating in public discourse. They're always there—good times, bad times. The real question is who picks them up and who exploits them—or who makes an effort to counter them. That's the job of political leadership.
I encourage, from the top down, the government and all those in Parliament to take steps to counter the dehumanization of non-citizens—allegations that are ultimately weak. For example, they can challenge that newcomers are responsible for housing shortages. Housing shortages need a very complicated economic account of the financialization, among other things, of the housing industry. Think about countering the blaming, for example, of international students for doing what international students do, which is study and, to some extent, work and reside in communities.
It is really important to not just take the existence of anti-immigrant narratives, or things that blame newcomers for problems that are broad social and complicated economic issues, and run with them for political advantage. Rather, it is important to show leadership. There are moments when the government has done that in the past, and I think it can do it again.
With respect to the safe third country agreement, I think it's time for the government to step up. If we're all alarmed, as we should be, by what is being done in the United States to non-citizens, and if we think we are a better country in our attitudes and treatment of non-citizens, then it's time to actually step up and demonstrate that by revoking the safe third country agreement. Instead of investing resources, for example, of $1 billion into CBSA to militarize our border, we should invest that into enabling safe, regular and orderly entry of asylum seekers at the land borders in a way that is efficient and that serves the needs of both Canadians and asylum seekers.
Thank you very much for the question.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Murad, would you like to add something to this?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
My colleague said it beautifully. I don't have anything to add.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
The next question is for you, and then maybe we can ask Ms. Macklin to add to it.
How can a government balance the need for a stable and safer asylum system with our international and moral obligations to assist those facing persecution and ensure everybody is treated with fairness and respect?
Director, Federal Government Relations, The Refugee Centre
I would like to call attention to one of the recommendations we spoke about today, which is the creation of additional complementary pathways. The idea behind this is to prevent people from having to risk their lives in order to get to Canada, as well as to pair these people with our labour market needs. This is a mutually beneficial agreement that would limit the amount of danger and trauma that people have to go through. It would benefit Canada as well.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East, ON
Ms. Macklin, would you like to add to this?
Professor and Chair in Human Rights Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, As an Individual
There are two things: We could reopen and invigorate the refugee sponsorship program, because not only was it good for refugees, but it was really good for Canadians, for Canada. The government has cut the number of refugee sponsorships available, so this would be a really positive initiative.
In addition, as I said, the government can think about how to infuse enough resources into our asylum system so that rather than having a problem of backlogs, we are moving it forward as best we can. The difficulty—I'll emphasize this, and I understand the concern—is that we don't control what happens in the world that makes people have to seek refugee protection. In that sense, we cannot control exactly how many people are going to be seeking refugee protection from Canada at any given moment. However, that's not the fault of those seeking protection, and it's not a weakness of Canada. It's not a failure of sovereignty. It is a situation that calls for creativity and flexibility in response to changing conditions worldwide.