Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't want to say that there is a final report, because it's always going to be for us to continue to progress. We have a three-year plan. However, we can at least tell you where we started when we started our strategy, and where we are at this point in time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Definitely. We are putting out reports on a regular basis. If you go on the Privy Council Office website, there are calls to action that the clerk put in place—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —and we have responded to that publicly as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are not going to be able to follow up with those individuals specifically, because this was a volunteer approach and we do not know the individuals who were specifically met by Pollara. We did that intentionally, so that they did not have a fear of any type of reprisal or of truthfully sharing what they felt, so we cannot follow up specifically on those cases.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for that recommendation. I can tell you that further independent studies are planned as part of our strategy.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you like, I could ask Farahldine Boisclair to give you a few of those details right away.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As the minister mentioned, we have been given some funding to be able to really address the processing backlog we have. I can assure you that this is very much a priority for the department and we're working really hard to achieve progress in all of the business lines. What I can tell you is that in April 2021 the department introduced this ambitious plan for processing applications from caregivers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You are right. We know that people who are victims of racism or who have had a bad experience are very afraid to speak out about it, for fear of the repercussions on their career. We have set up what we call trust circles. This refers to a conversation that these people can have voluntarily and directly with senior officials, myself, Deputy Minister Catrina Tapley and others in senior management.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You are absolutely right. As the minister said, systemic racism exists throughout government, including in our department. We know that we need to improve the way we deal with these kinds of situations. Having said that, there are certainly people who have experienced some things.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said, we definitely know about the situations. We know about them because we have carried out surveys in the department since 2020. One of those surveys was specifically about racism. We then contracted the company Pollara, as we wanted to go more in depth to understand exactly what was happening.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can tell you that all the cases that have been brought to our attention have been managed with all the tools at our disposal. We are trying not to ignore the situation. If I or Ms. Tapley are made aware of the situation, we take action.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When assessing the relationship between spouses and common-law partners, officers must be satisfied that the relationship that exists is genuine. That's irrelevant of which country the application is being processed from. The application kit requires that the applicants submit certain documents as proof of their relationship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm going to ask Pemi to answer your question with more precision than I might.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. As the minister was saying, we take the anti-racism strategy very seriously. We don't want to see harassment or discrimination in the department. One of the things that is paramount in the department—I've seen it, especially since I've been in the job—is that anyone who sees anything wrong should report it.