Family reunification

1. Some refugees selected overseas are resettled in Canada without their immediate families (usually because they are in another country).
2. Some refugees granted status by the IRB are advised not to include immediate family members on their permanent residence application, in the interests of speedier processing.
3. Both of these groups of people may face financial barriers when they subsequently attempt to be reunited with their family, because they are no longer classified as refugees.
4. There is inconsistency across Canada in the application of financial requirements for the sponsorship of spouses and dependent children.

1. Presently no guidelines exist at the IRB with respect to making children's best interests a primary consideration in appropriate cases before it;
2. The need to assign primary consideration to the best interests of children is required by international legal instruments to which Canada is a party;
3. The Federal Court of Canada has failed to give effect to the best interests of children representing more than a consideration in immigration matters affecting children's interests;

1. The Canadian Immigration Act and the Québec immigration law state that family reunification is a central objective of the Canadian and Québec immigration programs;
2. Canada has signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, all of which affirm the principle of family unity and that the family is entitled to protection by society and the state;
3. The CCR has published an extensive report on family reunification and has passed various resolutions calling for the elimination of barriers to family reunification;
4. The federal government continues to make changes in the Family Class regulations which serve to create further delays and barriers to reunification (i.e.. recent changes announced on March 18, 1997) and the Québec government has tightened the financial requirements for sponsors and has recently implemented a repayment program for defaulting sponsors without regard to their present financial situation;

1. There is an interdepartmental committee of CIC considering new measures to speed up family reunification for refugees;
2. The CCR supports a policy which would allow the dependants of refugees who are overseas to come into Canada and be processed within for landing;
3. The CCR has recommended measures promoting speedy family reunification in Res. 13, November 1995;

1. The IRB Chairperson has issued guidelines on unaccompanied minors;
2. There is nothing in the guidelines to encourage expedited hearings, nor avoiding full hearings, nor on recognizing the principle of family reunification;
3. There are often compelling reasons to expedite unaccompanied minors and very little difference between their claims and the claims of their parents, siblings or relatives whose claims have already been adjudicated positively;

delays cause anxiety and instability for refugees and their families;

1. Permanent residents, protected persons and citizens have the right to establish a longstanding relationship by co-habiting with or marrying a partner of their choice and have children, regardless of status;
2. Families are a key foundation of civil society and every effort should be taken to ensure that partners and their offspring are not separated;

1. The reunification of families continues to be a serious problem for refugees in Canada;
2. No financial support requirement need be satisfied in the resettlement of protected persons;
3. Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, children who are granted "protected person" status in Canada are not permitted to include their parents and siblings, either abroad or in Canada, in their applications to be landed as "protected persons";

The definition of "dependent child" in IRPA, restricting "dependent child" to "biological" or "adopted child" may result in greater recourse to DNA testing, which is intrusive and possibly harmful to the best interest of children;

1. Communities are seeing many incidents where sponsored refugees are leaving newborn children behind.
2. Some children are dying as a result of these decisions.
3. These decisions are being made based on information circulating in-country that reporting these newborns will result in their travel arrangements being cancelled.
4. Information on how to report and procedures for reporting do not always reflect the context of refugee applicants regarding access.