Citizenship and Immigration committee  It hasn't come into effect yet, of course, but it would come into effect under Bill C-31. To give you one example of a person, a real case we worked with, a woman from Ethiopia was forced to be married at age 12. She was a victim of sexual assault due to her Eritrean background.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is the timeframe for an appeal. Perhaps my colleague Mr. Bohbot would like to answer that question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may begin, we feel that it violates the refugee convention in terms of penalizing refugees because of their mode of arrival. We feel it violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights through mandatory detention, which is arbitrary, and through family separation of up to five years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Not at all, for the reasons we have touched on already: unrealistic timelines, lack of the right of appeal, mandatory detention for many claimants for one year. We agreed, touching on something that's been brought up a number of times, that there are problems with the current system.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I must say, I feel a little nervous about answering, because you were my former constitutional law professor, so I feel I'm going to be marked on this response. It seems to me that there could be nothing clearer than what the Supreme Court said in the Charkaoui security certificate case when it stated that indefinite detention without judicial review in Canada is contrary to the charter.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In our opinion, the greatest threat is that Canada will fail to comply with its non-refoulement obligations. Under the Geneva convention on the status of refugees, we have the basic obligation of non-refoulement. That requires us to never send someone back to a country where he may be persecuted.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Rivka. Although the Table de concertation adds its voice to stakeholders such as the Canadian Council for Refugees, which feels that Bill C-31 is so flawed as to require replacement with more balanced legislation, in order to be constructive we will be focusing on the Refugee Appeal Division and post-claim recourses, and providing our observations and recommendations on that.