Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the refugee population, I don't think that's an effective remedy. An IRCC officer would have to go through the same training, sensitivity training and training on how to ask these questions, as any other IRB member. There is an issue of a lack of independence. I'm thinking in

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that the training has to be better trauma-informed, and that means really understanding. There are a lot of generic tropes that are applied at the board. There is this idea that somehow trauma is going to sharpen your memory. This gets trotted out a lot in questioning. If

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When you're referring to appeals, do you mean the refugee appeal division?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Most of the refugee appeal division is going to be a paper-based process so you aren't going to have a hearing in many situations. I think it can be challenging to strike that balance between asking the questions that are necessary as a board member and also listening and making

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree. I think it is a big concern, the ability to ask the questions respectfully and to obtain the information. In terms of application or at least knowledge around the law, I do think it is important that there is a more base-level knowledge. I don't necessarily think that me

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't necessarily think that everyone needs to have formal training in law before coming to the board, but they need to be able to learn and have an ability to uptake the information they need.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To go back to the first point that you said he made, that it would destroy the morale of the board, a judicial council, JPs, they are all subject to this kind of an independent review. I can't speak to their morale, but they seem to continue as an institution without any problem.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My concern with that is that even the most well-intentioned person who is the head of an institution is going to want to preserve the reputation of that institution as well. Even though there hasn't been a huge number of complaints, part of that—just from my own experience and co

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, that's not what I was saying. What I was saying is that the complaints process didn't seem to be effective, and that what happened more recently when complaints were brought against board members was that they continued to hear some claims or claims were put aside and sat un

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it would depend on each individual example in terms of whether there are a lot of complaints—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I think it would be appropriate. One of the things we are seeing now, as a result of the public pressure through newspaper articles and Global News, is that some of the most problematic board members have left or have resigned. I don't think it's the best situation that this

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's a combination of that and the fact that there are administrative inefficiencies at the board. They have an expedited process, and “expedited” is a complete misnomer. It's not a faster process. Claims that should be based on objective evidence, that should be easily d

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I find that concerning because, basically, you're making refugee claimants who come after the complaint and training into guinea pigs to see if the training took effect. I also think that if we looked to other bodies, for example the law society, we'd see that when people are rei

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that there is a conflict in that process and that it should be an independent decision-maker making that final call on the complaint, not the chairperson.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say yes, but I think that's where an independent decision-maker and independent complaints body might have that ability, as opposed to the IRB, which seems to be limited to the mandate and when that person is an employee. I think that would point to why an independent com