I remember the first time I realized the weaknesses inherent in Canada’s immigration and refugee system. It occurred during my very first month as a Refugee Protection Officer, when I was screening a refugee claim referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Essentially, when a person claims for refugee protection either within Canada at an in-land CIC office (like the airport, or the CIC office at the Harry Hays building here in Calgary) or at the border, CIC has the responsibility to ensure that the individual is ‘eligible’ to make a refugee claim.
Unfortunately, the eligibility determination relies mainly on information provided by the refugee claimant himself. At the same time, CIC does not have the ability to magically divine the true nature or background of the individual before them. A large number of refugee claimants come from countries such as Pakistan, where fraudulent documents (including passports and therefore new identities) are easily obtained.
Once CIC determine the person is eligible to make a refugee claim, the file is transferred to the Immigration and Refugee Board, where the file is screened and (eventually) a hearing is set down and the claim is heard by an independent decision maker (appointed generally without explicit legal/refugee experience – but is generally an individual who has connections to the federal party currently in power in Ottawa). At that time the refugee claimant is either granted refugee status, or is denied.
Before me that day was an individual who explicitly stated that he was a ‘leader’ of a known illegal and terrorist group in Pakistan well known to violate the human rights of religious minorities in that country. Notwithstanding his acknowledgement, the file was proceeding in the ‘refugee stream’ and it would be likely years before he could be removed from Canada.
Luckily, there were provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Board that allowed CIC to ‘claw back’ the file and set the matter down instead for an admissibility hearing (allowing for a more expeditious removal of this individual).
After a sigh of relief, I had time for more reflection on the matter. The only reason that the individual was facing removal from Canada was because he was foolish enough to acknowledge his relationship with the illicit organization. I wondered how many more similar individuals – perhaps more cunning, or perhaps more reticent – were able to utilize the refugee determination system to obtain status in Canada.
But, it goes beyond our refugee determination system. There are holes throughout the system. Background checks of prospective immigrants are essentially an exercise in futility. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is apparently charged with playing “a leading role in protecting the national security interests of Canada”. CSIS itself has acknowledged in 2006 that 90% of immigration applications from Pakistan and Afghanistan -- ‘hotbeds for Islamic fundamentalism’ -- have not been adequately screened for security concerns.
Citing a lack of resources, Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations for CSIS told a Senate national security committee last year, that the ‘Service’ (as it refers to itself) was not in a position to vet one-tenth [of the 20,000 immigrants from Afghanistan/Pakistan]. In a fantastic if not ludicrous understatement, he remarked “That may be inadequate”.
I think that we may as well stick our collective heads in the sand against the very real and imminent threat in our midst, hoping against reason that it will go away, if the number two man at CSIS thinks one-tenth may be inadequate.
What I propose may be shocking or revolutionary, but I suggest – in the name of the national and public interest -- that immigration applications should not be processed if adequate security screening has not been done. A lack of resources can never be an excuse in this post-9/11 world.
Comments