Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. On behalf of all Refugee Rainbow members, thank you for this opportunity to present the work we do. Rainbow Refugee is honoured to steward the rainbow refugee assistance program, and we are proud to partner with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Together

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Witnessing acts of courage like this is one of the rewards that keep us going. The targeted backlashes against sexual- and gender-diverse people in Chechnya, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Uganda in just the past five years make it clear that homophobic and transphobic persecution

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Leadership in the minister's office and the IRCC support is crucial. IRCC staff have been willing and able to troubleshoot when life-threatening emergencies arise. So we applaud all the parties around this table who are enthusiastic about ensuring the safety and rights of LGBTQ r

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Spikes in homophobic and transphobic violence will continue to occur. People fleeing this violence need safer pathways to protection. The RRAP is a small example of how this can be accomplished through deep community engagement and a public-private partnership. With longer-term f

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Canadian LGBTQ communities are passionate about doing this work. They've stood up in solidarity and want to do more and we hope you'll give us this opportunity. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've had the honour of working with 800 people. We have 19 circles in formation in B.C. and 12 more on the go. There is clearly the capacity. You've heard about the fundraising capacity. There is the desire to do more. We want to be given the opportunity.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you've distilled many of the critical elements. There needs to be support for civil society organizations, centring LGBTQ civil society organizations to be able to work pre-arrival and post-arrival.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Often it is the NGOs on the ground that know who is seeking protection. We are already working with Rainbow Railroad, which is working with LGBTQ Russian networks. The networks are there. It would be helpful to communicate and work closely to identify two sources, like the U

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. It's what will allow us to build and grow at the program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are grave inequities across regions that need to be addressed. If we could get it down to one year globally, then it would be essential to have SOGI analysis—sexual orientation or gender identity analysis—incorporated across the board, in all of IRCC's operations, to remove

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do need a specialized program for the internally displaced. Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression need to be considered in the vulnerability factors for that. This program should involve consultation and collaboration, resourced collaboration, with civil societ

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All the sponsorship groups that participate must include members of the local LGBTQ community. They must participate in a code of ethics orientation and process. Each member signs on to this code of ethics. There is an orientation session as well, which also works with the circle

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, this is obviously a complex question. There is no one single right answer. Many of the people we work with are referred through NGOs. There's sort of a trusted network. You heard how people had reached out to local NGOs, and they're the ones that reach out to us. People self

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The longer-term commitment would allow us to build fundraising capacity. It would also allow us to share what I call emerging best practices across groups. One of the benefits we've seen in this program is that the capacity in a local community increases, not just in the circles

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm Sharalyn Jordan, Rainbow Refugee chair and assistant professor in counselling psychology at Simon Fraser University. In a world where violent homophobic and transphobic hate persist and may be on the rise, Canada must live up to its promise to be a place of protection. For 1