Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. Thank you for that question. We especially applaud the government on the extension of the definition of “family”. It is something that we absolutely support, but these family reunification measures must also be extended to other communities, to Afghans and to other r

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. It is something that we have raised with the government in the past when someone is already working in the language. We see that for caregivers from English-speaking countries as well, such as the Caribbean. It makes no sense if someone is already working in the langu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe the government needs to lift caps. I understand the backlog. I think it's something we're all struggling with, in all streams of immigration. The government needs to build capacity in the system. I agree with Madame Bien-Aimé in terms of removing some of the bureaucra

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Dhaliwal, I would suggest that in addition to what the imam has suggested, we also take a look at the collection of data on this aspect. We have lots of anecdotal information. I often say that what gets measured gets addressed, so let's get the hard data so we can continue

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important study. I'm the executive director of OCASI, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. We are the umbrella organization for immigrant- and refugee-serving agencie

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was about to leave.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure, that will be great.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. We've said to the minister that folks who are in search of safe haven or seeking asylum need asylum, regardless of the pandemic. We're asking the government to allow folks to come in, especially those who are government-sponsored. We've seen that the few who have tri

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a very good question. Thanks very much. As I was saying, given the restrictions on travel due to COVID and the closing of embassies, what we are strongly encouraging the government to do is to look internally to identify the folks who are here with a precarious immigratio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  [Technical difficulty—Editor] in Canada and we believe that this is important. I have an unstable connection. We believe the time is right for the government to put in place some sort of regularization program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have experience of this in Canada. I believe the last regularization program was in the early to mid-1980s. It was a huge success. As I said, we have a number of folks here who want to stay in Canada, including those in the seasonal agricultural workers program, who have bee

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our member agencies that provide services are very mindful of creating safe spaces for all of their clients. They create an opportunity for clients who may be vulnerable to exploitation to be able to reach out in case they're feeling a need for support.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. With all of our recommendations, one thing that we have been trying to impress upon government is that parents and grandparents contribute to the social and economic assessment and integration of families. Grandparents, in particular, are not only cultural bridges but

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. We've had a number of discussions with Minister Mendicino on this, especially since this is the time we believe Canadians will be very supportive of putting in place a regularization program. We have a number of folks here who are undocumented or with precarious immigration

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So yes to landed arrivals for migrant workers—