Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee for allowing me to appear before you today and for your efforts to enhance and improve the integrity of Canada's immigration system. My name is Todd Shean. I'm the assistant commissioner of federal and international operations for th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Similar to my colleagues, we rely upon the training of our membership. As well, we rely upon the assistance of our liaison members, who are located across the world, as we enter upon certain investigations to make determinations to assist us in ensuring we have the p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll start first. It's a good question, and you're correct. I can speak for the RCMP as well, and I believe the other services have a lot of members with different cultural backgrounds, so we have access to ensure that we bring those members forward to assist us in that. Agai

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd have to agree. I think that's one of the indicators, plus you look for other information to narrow that field as well—date of birth and other information you have about the individual.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would speak similarly. I think I see the benefit to our partners at CIC and CBSA, but we see the advancement of any new and improved law enforcement tools as beneficial to all types—not simply law enforcement, but to all looking to ensure the security of Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  From an RCMP perspective, I can say that I believe that was tabled this morning, and I'm not quite familiar.... I'd have do a little bit more research, I think, to give you a thoughtful answer. I wouldn't be able to venture into that area at this particular time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I stated earlier, I believe it was introduced this morning, so I expect we'll be back before this committee for further discussion on this. We have to have a lot better understanding of what is contemplated, and then I think we'll be in a better position to answer your questio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't know that percentage off the top of my head, sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It goes back to my earlier comment. Depending on what's contemplated, I think anything is doable. However, it's what's being contemplated and then it's to determine if it's viable, if it's something we should be doing. I guess anything is doable, but I feel it would require furth

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We would be involved in doing the checking and then providing the information to our partners in the visa vetting process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We would receive a request to check our databases and then we would provide the information to our partners at CBSA, up to CISC, so those numbers would rest in my colleague's area, I believe.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do the checks and are involved in it; however, we pass what we discover as a result of the checks to our partners.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We would run the indices to check on the names that were provided to us. Depending on the indices check, it could lead to a fingerprint verification. As I said in my speech, under the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, in certain circumstances we'll check it against our intelligence da

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry. That's certainly out of my area of expertise. I'm not certain. I wouldn't know the answer. I apologize.