Finance committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. It's a privilege to appear before the committee. Like two of the other speakers, I'm here to talk briefly about the immigration measures, but one thing I want to make clear is that I'm not here to enter into a debate about immigra

Finance committee  I'm almost done. We waited our time in the queue for more than two years, and because of that trust our careers were affected negatively. And now, four and a half years later, we suddenly got the news on March 29 that our case would be wiped out. We were stunned on hearing that

Finance committee  No. I mean, I'm shocked; there's going to be another big demonstration in Hong Kong within the next few days. I was a class counsel the last time they tried to eliminate the backlog, so people found my e-mail and e-mailed me. I've seen literally hundreds of e-mails from people

Finance committee  The problem with trying to improve the selection process.... As I said, I've been practising immigration law for 30 years, so I've been through a lot of governments of all different stripes telling me this is the one that's going to work. I understand the minister's idea about a

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  There is a case management conference today with a judge in the Federal Court on the issue of whether or not we're going to be able to proceed with that matter. I'm representing some people who are considering challenging this legislation.

Finance committee  I read you the story of this woman who contacted me. There are hundreds of people like that. That's why we went to court, because we want to try to protect their rights against what we think are the immoral actions of this government. In terms of your specific question of the co

Finance committee  None of those costs is ever going to be reimbursed, just the application fee.

Finance committee  I'll make two points. First of all, I don't disagree that things need to be done and I don't disagree with the idea of reform. I have two concerns. First of all, I think what we're doing is wrong.

Finance committee  Well, I think Mr. Kurland gave you the kernel of an idea. I think there are things that can be done. When the last backlog was mitigated, in the end there was a settlement that allowed the government to slowly process that backlog over a long period of time so that it didn't gum

Finance committee  Anyway, I'm just telling you—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for inviting me. It's an honour to appear before this committee, studying this extremely important topic. I see far too frequently in my practice women who have suffered abuse. Unfortunately, our experience has been that in many cases the immigration system compels the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Marriages of convenience have been combatted before the visa through two different procedures. The first was the careful scrutiny by visa officers, who have the power to refuse the issuing of a visa if they believe that the marriage is non-genuine. That has been happening as lo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. Of course, we're talking here about two different issues, because some of the women who come are victims of abuse and they flee their country and come here and make claims for refugee protection based on abuse. Those women have to go through the refugee process and th