Citizenship and Immigration committee  I know the answer, but I will defer to my colleague here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are many countries in the world where the first-instance decision is undertaken by civil servants. For us, what is important is that the decision-making body is independent and is not put under any kind of pressure, or brought under any kind of influence, but is able to make decisions based on objective criteria.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll answer the question, and then I will also defer part of it to my colleague, who might wish to add to it. There is no way in which you can treat one refugee different from another. It is not possible. You cannot have a discriminatory policy for determining refugee status, because as I said earlier, refugee status determination comes from the right of an individual to be able to seek asylum.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you're quite clear, but I think I'll let my colleague here answer that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Allow me, Mr. Chair, to ask my colleague to provide you with a more adequate response.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is quite possible. This is why it's important that we gather and collect the information in all its detail, so that we are sure of the decision we would have to be making.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, as I said earlier, it should not be an absolute bar, and it should not be used as a tool in order to eliminate. It should be used more in order to expedite, perhaps, the processing of a first instance claim, because the person is deemed to be from a democratic or free country where there would not necessarily be any particular reason, as a safe country, to have any claims that could support such an effective claim.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't see any difficulty in UNHCR's participating in such an advisory panel, but I would like to make sure that everyone understands that UNHCR is not here to be part of creating that list. Because we, as a United Nations organization, and more as a humanitarian organization, cannot be seen as taking sides with one country or another.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Please allow me to answer in English. It will be easier for me to answer those technical questions. We are very much aware of the importance of time limitations, and you obviously cannot have an open-ended time for assessing a claim and coming up with a final decision. But at the same time, we would like to caution against the danger of reducing the time, which might compromise the quality of the decision.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, sir, for that question. We have had and continue to have discussions with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, where we have very openly discussed the problems and issues that we confront today. There's no doubt that Canada faces enormous challenges with regard to its refugee status determination system.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is not new at all. Several countries have designated lists. We also have to remember that a designated list does not remain static. There are changes that take place. There have to be the types of mechanisms and safeguards that are necessary to ensure that nothing has changed in the country between the time the determination takes place and the time the person is removed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, sir. I'll go straight into my presentation, which I'd like to give in the interests of time. Chairman Tilson, honourable committee members, ladies and gentlemen, the UNHCR appreciates the opportunity to provide comments relating to Bill C-11. The Canadian refugee status determination procedure is one of the very few that the UNHCR holds up as an example to other countries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we should separate the two. What we would like is more contributions to come in order to be able to attend to the welfare of these people in the region. The second thing we would like to do is to have more people being resettled because of the sheer numbers I spoke about.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Canada has two resettlement programs--three, basically, but l just limit myself to the two. One is where people privately sponsor individual citizens from here, and then you've got UNHCR's program, which comes under the government-assisted programs. There the Canadian officers do go out.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we need more money. We need to be better funded.