Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. That's a very good question. Hong Kong claims have an average processing time of about 11 months. That was slowed down because of the pandemic, but we are operating now at our annualized capacity of 50,000 claimants. We have received a cash injection fro

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We look at decisions on a case-by-case basis with the most up-to-date evidence available. Under our Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, we only exclude under section 98 serious non-political crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity. We would look at the current contex

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't have the answer to that question. I only have data with respect to asylum claims that have come before the IRB—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a good question. I would first caution, though, that some of those claims were from 2018 and 2019 as well. Every claim is unique and determined on its own merits. We have been averaging around 85% in terms of positive determinations of our claims to date, but I would say

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Approximately 15% were negative out of the 28 claims.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The IRB is an independent decision-maker. When we look at our mandate, we have a research group that monitors, on a daily basis, developments with respect to country conditions. We are live to contextual issues, but we do operate independently from the department and the minister

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're independent of the government. Our decision-makers are independent, and we have institutional independence. We have—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't comment on that. We haven't received any official communication, and I really don't want to comment or speculate on what that would look like.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of the process, the IRB only has jurisdiction to adjudicate refugee claims and appeals made within Canada. We determine those refugee claims that are first determined eligible by either the Canada Border Services Agency or the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. That's a good question, but in terms of the IRB, we only deal with refugee claims that are made within Canada, so that would be the responsibility of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. That's a great question. We look at foreign convictions to see whether they would be offences under Canadian laws if they had occurred here. If there's no equivalent offence, the individual would be deemed to be admissible and able to make a refugee claim. For exampl

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I am joined today by Ms. Heather Primeau, who is the director general of strategic directions and corporate affairs. I would like to start by thanking the committee for the opportunity to speak with you today. Before jumping into the issues at hand, I wo