Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I think that makes a lot of sense. As I said in my presentation, it's a priority that we reduce the backlog and reduce waiting time. There will still be, I think, a provision for some kind of an appeal to the Federal Court in complicated cases. But I think the government has

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me to speak before you today. I'm pleased to be able to contribute my views on this comprehensive overhaul of Canadian citizenship legislation, which in my view is long overdue. I might mention in this regard that, pri

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think there's an automatic assumption that you have to be more thorough. From some countries, there's very little fraud, and you don't have to double-check with the bank to find out if the bank statement was genuine or not. I think we can make certain assumptions, and you have

Citizenship and Immigration committee  May I ask that we have a review in the new year, if possible, Mr. Chairman?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. The exit checks are important because they won't keep people from overstaying or claiming refugee status, but we at least will know what's going on and when someone has left. We have no idea how many people are here illegally. It may be a huge problem;

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I don't think the appeal is the best vehicle, based on the experience other countries have had. Australia has been cited. It's a very long, expensive appeal. A lot of these applications are time sensitive. There should be some way of reviewing. I like the simple resubmissio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You get applications from China, for example—I can name specific countries, because I'm no longer a public servant—in which a lot of the education documents are fraudulent. All you can do is track them down. One of my first postings was in Nigeria, and students had to prove they

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. What I've never been asked to talk about is some of the general issues of why we have the immigration levels we do, and whether they're working for Canadians. I would like to make a plea that sometime in the new year perhaps this could be raised. We're told, for examp

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Chairman. Chairman, could I request that you warn me when I have one minute left instead of 30 seconds because I have some points I'd like to make. Thank you first for inviting me, and thank you to committee members. Since there are quite a few new committe

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, a number of people have raised the issue of arbitrariness and how it applies to people who have dual citizenship but not to those who don't. I think that's an issue we simply have to accept. Frankly, I would like to get rid of other people who commit serious crimes of terro

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, essentially.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Professor Macklin characterized revocation of citizenship as cruel and either inhuman or unusual punishment. We have been doing that for people, particularly war criminals who have failed to declare their involvement in war crimes before they came here. I haven't heard her commen

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I certainly would agree with everyone here that the rule of law is very important in Canada. It's one of our most important principles. On the other hand, we've had a pretty weak record sometimes, in terms of convicting people who have committed acts of terrorism and removing t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They might. This is speculation. You asked for a yes or no answer, but I'm not going to provide one. I imagine that many terrorists would go ahead and do what they're going to do anyway, if they're irrational. But I think we should be sending a clear message, which we have failed

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Some people might. I mean, it's possible.