Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Kenney's bogus refugee bill

Two refugee experts excoriate Kenney's bogus refugee bill: Read the full article at the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1135376--ottawa-s-bogus-refugee-bill Ottawa’s bogus refugee bill Toronto Star 2012/02/22 Audrey Macklin and Lorne Waldman Jason Kenney, the minister of Citizenship and Immigration, knows who the real refugees are. Or at least he knows which ones are “bogus”: refugee claimants from Mexico or Sri Lanka or Hungary are bogus. Bogus refugees include those who use smugglers to overcome the barriers to lawfully reaching countries like Canada which, by signing the refugee convention, have promised not to send back persons fleeing persecution. ... Kenney made his views clear to voters by highlighting the issue of “bogus claims” in the last election. And he made them known to the members of the Immigration and Refugee Board — the decision-makers who are tasked with determining individual cases based on the evidence, and whose reappointments depend on Kenney’s opinion of them. And just to be sure that his views were respected, he took the unprecedented step last year of telling the justices of the Federal Court to stop thwarting his efforts to reform refugee policy by holding government officials legally accountable for their actions. Now, with a majority government in... Read more →

News Release and Backgrounders re "Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act"

Here is the link to the news release and backgrounders on the new Bill, tabled this morning in the House. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-02-16.asp Read more →

Message from the IRB Chair

Subject: Message from the IRB Chairperson regarding Bill C-31 As you know, the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, tabled Bill C-31 on February 16, 2012 that would bring further changes to the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other legislation that touches on immigration matters. The new legislation, as well as supporting material, can be accessed via the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website. You will also know that this legislation is being driven by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and that, as an independent administrative tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) does not develop policy. Any questions about the Bill should therefore be directed to CIC. We recognize that some of the proposed changes from the draft legislation could raise some concerns over timelines and processes. Please rest assured that the IRB, which has been recognized and served as a model to many other countries, will continue to meet its obligations in providing a fair process to all eligible refugee claimants who appear before it. Our personnel, who are extremely committed and devoted to our mission and mandate, are developing innovative measures to meet the new timelines and... Read more →

Refugee Reform: Expediency at the Cost of Fairness

“Protecting Refugees”: Expediency and Efficiency the New By Words in Immigration Henry Davis IV R.Psych Raj Sharma J.D. LL.M Jason Kenney is the most prolific Minister of Immigration this country has seen. Love him or hate him, he has fundamentally transformed his Department. Euphemistic legislative titles like the “Balanced Refugee Reform Act” and “Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act” have but one object and purpose – to elevate expediency and efficiency as the paramount considerations in immigration and refugee policy. It is true that reforms are necessary. Canada should not be receiving more refugee claims from Europe than from Africa; given the constraints imposed by the Supreme Court, everyone that claims refugee protection is granted a hearing. However, in his zeal to crack down on “bogus” refugee claimants, Mr. Kenney may inadvertently harm legitimate claims. The new time constraints imposed on every refugee claimant make it very unlikely that the most vulnerable – those suffering from PTSD or other severe mental or sexual trauma – will have a full and fair hearing before the re-constituted Refugee Protection Division. The new legislation aims to have refugee claims heard within 60 days. Individuals suffering from serious trauma will undoubtedly be prejudiced with such... Read more →

Tories move to curb 'bogus' refugees

New bill uses majority to roll back earlier concessions By Louise Elliott, CBC News Posted: Feb 15, 2012 9:03 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 15, 2012 11:52 PM ET The Conservative government is poised to change the refugee system yet again in an attempt to deter what it considers "bogus" claimants, CBC News has learned. The government will table a bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday that is expected to toughen the measures taken in the Balanced Refugee Reform Act. That bill — which passed a minority Parliament in June, 2010, after several concessions were made to the opposition — has yet to be implemented. It was due to be up and running by June 29 of this year. Sources familiar with the bill say it will reverse some fundamental compromises the government made to get it approved by opposition MPs. Most notably, it will eliminate a key appeal route for claimants from countries that are on a special "designated country of origin" or "safe country" list. It will also eliminate a committee of experts who were to advise the minister on which countries to place on that list. The list, which isn't yet up and running, is... Read more →

What is a dependent child?

Generally speaking, someone over 22 years of age cannot be sponsored as a dependent child. As Justice Harrington notes in his recent decision on one of our matters, there are exceptions. One of those exceptions occurs when the individual is over 22 years of age, has depended substantially on the financial support of a parents since before turning 22 and is unable to be financially self-supporting due to a physical or mental condition. In our case, our client (the sponsor) sponsored his parents and his disabled older brother to Canada. His brother was a survivor of polio and suffered from Post Polio Residual Paralysis affecting both his legs. The evidence before the immigration officer was uncontroverted: disabled children were viewed as a "curse from God" by 50% of Indian households; the disabled in India had a 62% unemployment rate; and, this individual had never worked. The immigration officer, however, preferred something called a "ADLR - Activities of Daily Living Report" which really determined mobility rather than employability. The immigration officer dismissed the affidavits provided by the sponsor's father and brother. Justice Harrington made short shrift of such reasoning. He found that there was "ample evidence of societal discrimination against individuals... Read more →