I move that Bill C-12, in clause 45, be amended by replacing line 26 on page 20 with the following:
quested to do so, the Minister may transmit the claim to
Bill C-12 introduces provisions that will result in claims being declared abandoned before they have been referred to the IRB if a claimant does not provide information and documents in a timely manner. As the Canadian Council for Refugees raised in their brief on Bill C-12, “The automatic nature of the provision will generate a new backlog of abandonment hearings for the IRB.”
This would waste significant, already-scarce IRB resources by mandating referrals for claims that do not need to be referred for abandonment, for example, in cases where a claimant just needs a few more days to provide documents or misses an interview due to illness. The provisions will also disproportionately impact more vulnerable claimants who may face communications or technological barriers. Once a claim is declared abandoned, a person cannot make another refugee claim.
To avoid this, my amendment would remove the mandatory nature of this clause by changing “must transmit” to “may transmit”.
I hope committee members will support this amendment. From what I'm seeing so far, the Liberals and the Conservatives are sure as heck working hand in hand. I hope this will break that trend.