Citizenship and Immigration committee  No.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was in favour that an evaluation was necessary, yes, and it was on the record that it would take place with the committee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was, and not only that, you should know, at the expense of time, that I sat through all the interviews of the first 200 candidates who came through the stream. I presided over the selection process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay, I draw to your attention the statement by the minister when it was put in place. It said that the committee here would review after—I think we said two years, I'm not so sure. I was the one who brought to the attention of the government that a review would do, and that we should look at it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You should be aware that Mr. Harrison and I knew each other professionally for years. When he was appointed at the Privy Council Office to do the work he was doing, I was on the first board he came to see how a merit system works. That was prior to his being appointed to do the review.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the selection process there are a lot of models you can use. He is proposing a model in his recommendations. My sense is that the principle that we enunciated in the one that we have now, of keeping the selection process non-political, is what I could see.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you look at the recommendation, when he deals with combining the panel and the selection process together, with three appointments from the minister and three appointments from the chair, you are in effect having a political presence in terms of the selection process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I am saying that there are all kinds of models.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's certainly not the way I would go.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said, when I was asked if I wanted to stand for the position at that time, I indicated that there were two or three things that needed to be done—from a distance, because I had been the executive director of that institution eight years prior, before being the chair. One of them was the fact that we have difficulty sometimes with our credibility surrounding the appointment process and the quality of the decision-makers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just remarked that when I retired on March 16, I never thought I'd be here. I don't come with briefing books or advisers, and I did not consult the IRB since my departure with respect to the state of the union. As you know, I'm here as an individual because I left my position as Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada on March 16.