Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm going to say that we talk from the perspective of LGBT people, and there are likely to be other groups who could be equally identified for religious reasons, for example. I think that when an application comes in where clearly this is a group that has been identified as vulne

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The $1 million comes from the fact that as private sponsors, they have to raise sufficient money to support them for 12 months. If you look at cities like Vancouver, I averaged $15,000 for supporting an individual, times 70. We do not allow people to submit applications until th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. Given the challenges, I'm also suggesting that it happen with LGBT folks who are actually connected with a private sponsor.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. If you're a member of the LGBTI community and you are a citizen of a country that criminalizes you because of your sexual orientation, that satisfies the country of origin challenges. Then what remains is the assessment of the credibility of the applicant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say clearly and absolutely not, for two reasons. First of all, the UNHCR has begun to do work in terms of identifying appropriate interviewing processes and interviewing questions. So there has been some work done; however, it's in a booklet on paper and it doesn't necess

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Currently we use the process that's in place. It means that people from Iran, Yemen, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia have to take the initiative of actually leaving their countries and going to another country. We're not in a position to be able to do anything financially to help or supp

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say several things. One is that I'm assuming the numbers he's giving are those who have actually arrived. The processing takes so long that in fact, between those who've arrived and those who are still in the pipeline, there are 70. My stats show a minimum of 70. That's o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't keep those statistics, because the three-month funds vary according to province because they're welfare rates. I know that during the period of time we have not depleted that budget.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I am the co-founder and a volunteer with the Rainbow Refugee society, which was begun in the year 2000 specifically to support LGBT refugee claimants, and now asylum seekers, because the basis of their persecution is their sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status. As

Citizenship and Immigration committee  While there has been reference made to source countries and the procedure that we have had in the past in our immigration legislation, we're actually talking about vulnerable groups being identified regardless of the country, rather than having country-wide blankets, so that folk