Citizenship and Immigration committee  To Ms. Desloges' point, I think applicants far too often go to the humanitarian and compassionate considerations where they can challenge the actual finding as at first instance, so you need not necessarily go there. Insofar as how that works in terms of a discretionary process,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's about the two-tiered system. If we are looking at a holistic aspect to the system, remember that before you can even sponsor your parents, you have to meet a minimum low-income cut-off. There's a financial component before you can even sponsor them, so family reunification

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question. There are multiple levels to that question. One, there's the distinction between health and social services. Much of what we've been hearing about in terms of the issues relate to social services. Health services would also be impacted by any repealme

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's an excellent question. To the point we made in our brief, there is no evidence to date that people are not complying with what they have offered. To Ms. Desloges' point, I believe if that data were to be collected—and we suggested a pilot project of a certain number of appl

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to add to that. There's a lot of discussion about the exceptionality of it and the humanitarianism of it, but the reality is that at the initial instance of an individualized assessment, one need not rely on exceptional or humanitarian consideration if they meet the thresh

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are a few points I'd like to clear up. First, health services can also be mitigated. I think one witness made the point that it's only social services, but health services can be mitigated as well. In terms of the issue with respect to the mitigation, there are two stage

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think where we land is that if the provision is applied in the manner contemplated by Hilewitz, it would be compliant. Having said that, because of the operational challenges that currently exist, it's not functioning to the level it should. With respect to applicants' contri

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The CBA's position is that at present, again, there is no evidence that there are compliance issues. It was raised in the 2015 IRCC report as a potential challenge. Our response was, we don't see the existence of it. However, if it did exist, in appropriate cases there are scheme

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration law section for your invitation and the opportunity to comment on this very important study. The CBA is a national association of over 36,000 lawyers, law students, notaries, and