A refugee advocate says the revelation that a dozen public servants broke Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s rules by improperly accessing its data system could stem from a lack of official communication from the department to applicants.
NDP MP Heather McPherson says the government’s failure to expedite these applications is ‘an international embarrassment.’
When residents cannot access the care they need, they cannot work, contribute, or participate fully in society.
A 2023 House motion called for Canada to accept 10,000 Uyghur refugees by the end of 2026. But a senior departmental official told the House Immigration Committee last month that fewer than 300 people have arrived in Canada.
If passed as is, Bill C-12 will impede the right of people fleeing persecution and torture to access asylum in Canada, undermining our government’s obligations under international law and risking our status as a global leader in the field of refugee protection.
If Canada continues to designate the U.S. as ‘safe’ while lethal immigration operations continue, then our realism is selective. We cannot claim moral leadership while outsourcing our conscience to a treaty signed under political conditions that no longer exist.
The law would grant cabinet broad authority to suspend, terminate, or cancel entire categories of immigration applications whenever deemed to be in the ‘public interest.’ Without clearer definitions and safeguards, such powers could be exercised in response to short-term political pressures.
The bill’s proposal for a new timeline for refugee applications that would be in effect starting in 2020—more than five years prior to the bill even being passed—and the power to cancel large numbers of immigration documents at once are causing concerns.
The Sudanese Civil War has produced the world’s largest active humanitarian crisis with millions of people displaced. Meanwhile, Canada’s resettlement stream has been plagued with delays.
In 2023, Canada’s auditor general found that backlogs were larger and processing times longer for refugee applicants in Africa due to under-resourcing of visa offices. Two years after that report, too little has changed.
A Halifax constituent and an advocate for Sudanese applicants are both calling for Immigration Minister Lena Diab to be shuffled out of her role as the federal program for Sudanese resettlement is marked by increasing delays.
A director of a non-profit supporting refugees says the proposed cuts, alongside legislation proposed in Bill C-2, could result in ‘life and death decisions’ being made by an ‘incredibly overburdened’ department.
Mark Carney’s Liberal government is ‘showing itself to be the most anti-privacy government in Canada that we’ve seen in decades,’ says UOttawa professor Michael Geist.
Canadian officials have yet to create a pathway for Sudanese mothers to come to Canada with their children, who are citizens.
Making tweaks to two existing pathways would not be difficult, other through the skilled refugees or on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
‘It was really was a political calculus, by the Liberals to scapegoat newcomers, for their failures in their policies,’ says NDP MP Jenny Kwan.
The results of The Hill Times’ 2024 year-end poll are in. Liberal MP Sean Fraser scores a hat trick and takes the ‘Most Valuable Politician’ title for the second year in a row, while Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre divides respondents.
‘It makes us worry that some applicants will get rejected due to excessive demand,’ says the Sudanese Canadian Community Association’s Samah Mahmoud.
As Sudanese Canadians wait for family members to be approved to come to Canada, concern mounts that delays will be fatal for those stuck in a war zone.
Latest government data shows RCMP, Correctional Services Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, as well as Canada Revenue Agency paid the most overtime in 2023.
MPs have told family members seeking to bring relatives to Canada that arrivals aren’t expected until 2027 and 2028.
No Uyghur refugees have been resettled in Canada yet, but hope persists that arrivals could begin in November, according to advocate Mehmet Tohti.
Regularization is not about rewarding lawbreakers; it’s about rectifying systemic failings that leave many people vulnerable and uncertain.
It is important that we prioritize and support undocumented people from marginalized backgrounds instead of excluding them with unfair requirements.
With emergency shelters overwhelmed, and alarming headlines telling of refugee claimants sleeping on the streets in Toronto and other major Canadian cities, this is a problem that can no longer be ignored.
