Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to the members of the committee. I have provided you with two written briefs. The first deals with the bill's changes to the refugee claim process. The second addresses the policies underlying the anti human-smuggling provisions of the bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. Thank you. I'll just go to my conclusion, then. Let me conclude by saying that it's possible to make fair and reliable decisions in a relatively short period, to catch our mistakes with an appeal, and to still remove failed claimants promptly and preserve the integrity of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Did I say fast?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, did I say slow or fast?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, there is. I mentioned part of it already in that asylum seekers don't get the information about what's going to happen to them. Secondly, in terms of the detention, they don't think it's going to be that bad. But the third reason they gave—and this is the obvious one—is that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let's talk about the resettlement program that was referred to. Please understand that Canada is the second-most generous country in the world. We actually accepted about 13,000, which is just after the U.S. But the resettlement program under the UN convention was never intended

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I repeat that I'm delighted that the government has implemented the appeal division. It was necessary. The judicial review application is only application for leave for judicial review, which is permission to do a judicial review. Only 14% get the leave application. Once again,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When they arrive, they're not refugees; they're asylum seekers and they're refugee claimants. However, we do no lists from the boats. If someone arrives in a group, we cannot make any assumption about the merits of their claim, whether or not there's a greater or lesser possibili

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly. I take bogus refugee to mean a fraudulent refugee. By that I mean someone who knows they are not a refugee and they're coming to Canada anyway. In other words, they are abusing Canada's refugee system. I think where the confusion occurs is with this notion of failed r

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I've already mentioned to you this notion of determination within six to seven months. I accept the concept of a designated country of origin. I accept the notion, though not everybody will agree with me, that there are some so-called advocacy communities, but I think it's possib

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can share both my experience and the research that's contained in the brief I provided to you, the second brief. Essentially, we know there are only 299 spaces available across Canada for detainees under the federal program. Most of them are full all the time. So the principal

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're all in my brief, with footnotes. You'll have the exact numbers. There's also a quote from about a year ago by the minister—I forget his name—who stated and retracted the policy, saying that it was a bad idea. But it's all in the brief, sir.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me say this. One of the quotes in there is from Alice Edwards, who is the principal researcher for the UNHCR. So I think you'll find it's quite the opposite.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  With regard to the increase in numbers, the mandatory detention policy was put in place in 1994. You will find the chart in there showing significant increases each year. It stopped in 2001, and there was a decline.