Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to make a general comment. The Canadian Council for Refugees was not consulted by the minister, or the department, in advance of that announcement. Despite the fact that our organization has consistently raised our concerns on this matter and given input, we have never b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely not.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The system did not address reappointments at all. That was one of the issues we raised in our letter to the minister, Judy Sgro, in April 2004. In her response she simply said that members would be evaluated by the board, and she would make the decision on their reappointment bas

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to comment on that. My understanding is that the committee was aware that it was bringing in a new screening process. The exam, as the Harrison report points out, was revised as a written test. So the panel members felt that they did not yet know whether this written te

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The impact is definitely great. One lawyer told me this morning that she was constantly receiving calls from the IRB to cancel refugee claimants' hearings. As a result of a shortage of Board members, the IRB has no other choice but to postpone hearings. It's hard for the lawyers,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The CCR shares the concerns around reappointments. It has to do with competent members not being reappointed. It is often said, when talking to people who seem to know what is going on, that under this government and under the previous government it can be whether persons have po

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's quite correct to do that. There is a particular problem as a result of the refusal of the current government to make any but a very few reappointments. This has a devastating impact on the IRB in terms of the loss of skilled members and morale within the board, because it

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I do.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I am here to represent the Canadian Council for Refugees, which is a confederation organization. We have nearly 170 member organizations across Canada. Our mandate is to promote the protection of refugees in Canada and in the world, and the settlement of refugees and immigrants i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to suggest to the committee that it hear from IRB representatives and ask them about the repercussions of the shortage of appointments. Obviously, they could talk about how the IRB has been affected by this situation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's the 23rd to the 25th. There will be copies of the flyer coming to the MPs in their mail, and I also have some copies here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You began by mentioning it seemed a lot of problems were logistical, and I would suggest it's a question of priorities. Our top priority is making sure refugees are treated right. We hear--and you were referring to that--the legitimate concern for the integrity of the system, whi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have worked with them and have been sensitive to their issues, but we haven't really followed the more recent developments in order to be able to comment on that.