Evidence of meeting #21 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 communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Lawyer, As an Individual
The claimants are accepted without a hearing taking place or any questions being asked.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Canada is accepting asylum claims on paper without actually talking to the claimants. Is that what you're saying?
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Then that must be from countries where we trust people inherently or something. What's the logic in terms of the countries that we accept people from?
Lawyer, As an Individual
When the policy was publicized in January 2019, it was accompanied by a list of countries. Then about a year and a half later, that list came down, but the policy remains operable. For the initial list, it was comprised of countries that had an acceptance rate of 80% or higher as a threshold and presumably additional criteria.
Conservative
Lawyer, As an Individual
It would be dangerous countries, because if a country has an acceptance rate for asylum claims of greater than 80%, that would tend to indicate there are significant sources of potential risk for asylum seekers from those countries.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Are we talking about countries like Russia and Afghanistan?
Lawyer, As an Individual
The list has evolved over time. I attached a sample of one of the lists to my paper. I don't have it in front of me right now.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Canada could theoretically, under this file review process, admit an asylum claimant from, let's say, Afghanistan, without actually ever talking to that person, or that person not being interviewed. Is that what you're saying?
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Does that make you uncomfortable? It sure makes me uncomfortable.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
You also talked about acceptance rates. You're saying our acceptance rates in Canada are quite high right now, relative to where they have been traditionally and also relative to peer countries. Can you talk about that?
Lawyer, As an Individual
The acceptance rate or recognition rate refers to the percentage of claims that are accepted, measured against the total of accepted and rejected claims. In 2024, that number was almost 80%, so 79.8%, for Canada. It's now among the highest, perhaps the highest, in the world.
Conservative
Lawyer, As an Individual
In 2024, Ireland accepted 30%, Sweden accepted 40% and Germany accepted 59%.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Our peer countries are accepting 30% to 40% of asylum claims and we're accepting 80%. Is that what you're saying?
Conservative
Lawyer, As an Individual
There's research that suggests that a disproportionately high acceptance rate may have the effect of attracting additional asylum claims to Canada. To put it in another way, perceptions of the likelihood of success and acceptance rates have been shown to have an effect on the selection by asylum seekers of the forum or the jurisdiction in which they choose to make their claim.
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
When the Liberals tweeted out, “Come to Canada, we'll welcome you in”, and then basically we have very low rejection rates, I can see why that would attract a lot of people. That makes sense.
It seems like there are a lot of problems potentially within the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Do you think it would be helpful for us as a committee to invite them to this committee to talk to them and ask them some of these questions?
Conservative
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
What kinds of questions would you suggest we ask them?
Lawyer, As an Individual
I don't think I should presume to suggest what questions you might ask.