Speeding up the process for refugees a good idea, but we’d better implement it right
On March 30, 2010, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, introduced long overdue reforms to the refugee determination process in Canada (Bill C-11).
In its famous 1985 “Singh Decision,” the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the paper process for refugee determination, then in place, did not provide the opportunity for an oral presentation by the claimant and this constituted a denial of Charter rights. This was a wise decision as the old process gave claimants no opportunity to state their case and to know the Minister's case against them.
In response, the Federal Government created the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) and provided that all refugee claimants in Canada would have an in-person hearing before a panel of members of the Immigration and Refugee Board. These members are Governor-in-Council or political appointees. The Government reaction was an over-reaction because the process soon became bogged down by the sheer volume of claimants.
The problem was that legitimate refugees had to wait in line with all the bogus claims, resulting in waits of up to five years for a decision. The Supreme Court decision only required that claimants being refused would be entitled to an oral hearing. There should have been a faster process to deal with legitimate claims.
Later reforms have reduced waiting periods to the current 19 months and the new proposals aim to conclude refugee determination within 60 days. However, it is unclear how new cases can be dealt with in this time period.
The Government’s “backgrounder” on the reforms states that “individuals who are determined to be eligible to make an asylum claim would meet with a public servant at the IRB within only eight days of being referred to the IRB. During this information-gathering interview, information on the claim would be collected, forms properly completed and a hearing scheduled before another public servant at the IRB within 60 days.”
The problem with this new proposed process is that the IRB is not in a position to meet these time standards. It only has offices in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and while the bulk of refugee claimants are in those three cities, at the end of 2008, over 4600 claimants were living outside of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. The largest number of these claimants is in Alberta but there are over 100 claimants in every province except Newfoundland and PEI.
These claimants should be treated in the same way as claimants where the IRB has offices but they will either have to wait for an IRB officer to visit their city or they will be expected to travel to an IRB office, at their own expense or, perhaps, make their all-important claim by video conference. This is not satisfactory and not equitable.
Meanwhile, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has some thirty offices from St. John’s to Victoria to Yellowknife.
If public servants with the IRB are going to make the initial refugee determination, why not give this responsibility to public servants with CIC? After all, CIC officers overseas already do refugee selection abroad. CIC has the network of offices and trained officers in every major community in Canada.
If this plan is to work, the government should amend Bill C-11 to provide that CIC officers make the initial refugee determination in Canada with the IRB having responsibility to hear appeals, as is the case for all other immigrant decisions. It will also eliminate the possibility of conflict of interest in IRB appeal decisions.
Will the IRB members, at appeal, be more likely to overturn a decision made by a CIC officer, who they do not know, or that of an IRB officer with whom they work closely?
Clearly, assigning responsibility for the initial refugee determination decision to CIC is the more cost effective and the fairer way to implement these important refugee reforms.
Robert Vineberg is a Senior Fellow with the Canada West Foundation. He was, formerly, the Director General, Prairies and Northern Territories Region, Citizenship and Immigration Canada.