Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Vancouver East for her question. I understand her concerns, but I would like to provide some background information.
Canada has a long and proud tradition of offering protection to those who need it. We have one of the fairest and most generous immigration and asylum systems in the world. Our immigration laws are applied impartially, based on facts, and they are meant to accord with the principle of due process.
Under Canada's immigration laws, people can lose their refugee status if it is proven that they no longer require Canada's protection. The grounds for revoking someone's refugee status are consistent with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Generally, when a protected person returns to the country from which they fled, for example, this suggests that they no longer require Canada's protection and they no longer qualify as a protected person.
Canada offers permanent residence for those who are determined to need refugee protection. Those subject to loss of refugee status because they voluntarily returned to their country of persecution or because they obtained protection from another country have demonstrated that they no longer need protection from Canada.
To cease a person's refugee status, the government must make a representation to the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent agency that determines whether the person has lost his or her status. These decisions rest on strong and compelling evidence. The IRB's authority to determine whether someone is no longer entitled to protection is not new. The authority to revoke permanent resident status, including permanent residence for refugees, is nothing new either.
However, as part of the refugee reforms made in 2012, the effect of a decision on loss of refugee status has changed such that in most cases, it leads to the lost of permanent resident status. That said, nothing has changed when it comes to the asylum system reforms for facilitating the presentation of a request for loss of refugee status, and the grounds for presenting such a request have not changed.
The Immigration and Refugee Board still requires strong, convincing evidence in order to determine that a person has lost their refugee status. The government will continue to consult stakeholders, as it has been doing, so we can make improvements to the current asylum system. I can assure the members of the House and the member for Vancouver East that we will be reviewing the policies and legislative provisions put in place over the past few years and making improvements.