The following are the CCR’s suggestions of some questions to ask candidates in the 2011 federal elections. Other organizations are welcome to adopt and adapt any or all of these questions for their own materials.

In most cases you will only have the opportunity to ask one or two questions, so you will need to choose where to place your priority. The questions below are not listed in order of priority.

1. Recent studies show continuing racial inequities in access to good jobs in Canada. Both racialized immigrants and their children are more often unemployed and, when they do have a job, earn less than the non-racialized.[1] If elected, how would you address the employment and wage gaps between racialized and non-racialized workers?
2. In recent years there has been a dramatic shift from permanent to temporary migration. In 2008 for the first time Canada received more people on temporary work permits than as permanent residents. People on temporary permits are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and cannot contribute fully to Canadian society.[2] Would you agree that Canada should go back to giving priority to permanent, not temporary status? If elected, what would you recommend to more effectively monitor employers and better protect temporary workers from abuse and exploitation?
3. Trafficking in persons is a reality here in Canada, yet we still have no law to protect non-citizens who are victims of the crime of trafficking. Currently the law treats them more as criminals by detaining and deporting them.[3] If elected, what would you do to ensure protection of trafficked persons in Canada?  Would you agree to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in order to provide temporary and permanent protection to victims of trafficking?
4. The immigration process keeps some children separated from their parents in Canada for years.[4] Children seem to be almost invisible. If elected, what measures would you propose so that Canada respects the right of children to be quickly reunited with their parents?
5. The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program is unique in the world and allows Canadians to help offer a permanent home to refugees. Ordinary Canadians continue to show strong interest in sponsoring refugees. But private sponsors have recently been told that in the future there will be a cap (or limit) on the total number of refugee applications they can submit, even though Canada is currently resettling far fewer refugees per year than 20 years ago.[5] Do you think it is right that there should be this limit on Canadians’ generosity towards refugees?
6. Canada’s visa office in Nairobi covers 18 countries in East and Central Africa. It is the slowest in the world to process cases for many immigration categories, including for refugees and for children reuniting with their parents. People wait literally years.[6] This looks like one of the ways in which Canada is failing Africa.  What measures would you propose so that Africans and African Canadians served by the Nairobi office are treated equitably by Canada?
7. Last June Parliament passed legislation (C-11) to change the refugee determination system. The changes include implementing the right to an appeal for refugee claimants whose claims may have been mistakenly refused. Recently, regulations have been proposed for this law that would give refugee claimants just 15 days to file an appeal, along with all the submissions. This timeline is completely unrealistic. It would be unfair to refugees and make the whole appeal process a waste of money.[7] What would you do, if elected, to make sure that refugee claimants get a reasonable opportunity to file their appeal? [NB CCR recommends 15 days to file and then 30 days to complete [perfect] the application]
8. The Tamil refugee claimants who arrived last summer on the West Coast have been subjected to harsh and unfair long term detention, at enormous unnecessary cost to the taxpayer.[8] Canada Border Services Agency has even been forcing some of them to prove they have paid the smugglers in order to be released.[9] Bill C-49 would have imposed mandatory detention in clear violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[10] That bill died when elections were called, but some of the claimants are still in detention, waiting for a more just and compassionate response. Do you agree that refugees have a fundamental right to liberty? If elected, how would you work to protect the right of refugees to fair treatment?
9. One of the greatest strengths of Canada is that it is a diverse society that welcomes immigrants and refugees. Unfortunately there has recently been an increase in political talk that promotes division, intolerance and misinformation and feeds into existing racism and xenophobia. For example, policy announcements have included negative messaging about some categories of refugees, and an unfair emphasis on the tiny minority of newcomers that commit fraud or crime.[11] What responsibility do you think politicians have to promote public support for refugees and immigrants and counter xenophobia?