1. The Refugee Assistance Program (RAP) is responsible for the provision of settlement services and income support for refugees deemed in need of protection by the Government of Canada;
2. The provision of these RAP services has been contracted to voluntary sector organizations;
3. The budget for the RAP program has not been increased since 1998;
4. The voluntary agencies across Canada have now reached a crisis point in their financial viability to be able to deliver services to government sponsored refugees;
5. The recent budget announcement of an additional $298 million dollars for settlement service for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration provides not one cent in additional funding for RAP services for government sponsored refugees;
6. Senior department officials have recognized the critical nature of the situation but have been unable to effect any significant change;

1. The settlement service system is currently mandated to provide language training for certain classes of newcomers to Canada;
2. Language training in the form of sign language training is not consistently provided across the country;
3. Those who are hearing impaired also have a right to language training;

1. Safe, secure and affordable housing is a resource that plays a critical role in determining overall health and well-being and provides a base from which immigrants and refugees can seek employment, re-establish family relationships and make connections with the wider community;
2. Immigrants and refugees are facing absolute and hidden homelessness problems in Canada;
3. UNHCR Reception and Integration Handbook, ch. 2.8 (A Place to Call Home) outlines guidelines;

Transportation loans and welfare levels of refugee support of government-assisted refugees under the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) force them into poverty;

1. Treasury Board of Canada released a Blue Ribbon Report in February 2007 recommending fundamental change and simplified administration of funding, contracts and contribution agreements;
2. The settlement service sector has ongoing difficulties with CIC and other federal government departments on their funding practices and monitoring of contracts and contribution agreements;

1. Racism and xenophobia, especially as directed towards immigrants and refugees, is alive and well in Canada;
2. This is manifested through legislation, policy and practice and has a brutal and lasting impact on immigrants and refugees;

1. The death of Mr. Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant in Canada on October 14, 2007 at Vancouver International Airport after being hit by an RCMP taser has shocked many Canadians and has damaged Canada’s reputation globally as a civil and human right pioneer;
2. At least 17 people have so far died in Canada following the use of tasers by police;
3. The use of taser guns and other electric-shock devices is subject to abuse and these weapons have the capacity to inflict multiple and prolonged shocks;

1. CIC has developed and implemented a gender-based tool to identify differential impacts of policies, programs and services;
2. IRB has developed and implemented guidelines on gender-related persecution;
3. Gender is only one among many factors of oppression that have a differential impact on refugees and immigrants;
4. CCR believes in and promotes a full, comprehensive and integrated anti-oppression framework of analysis that includes race, gender (including gender identity and expression), class, ability, sexuality (including sexual orientation), ethnicity, religion, age, nationality and immigration status;

1. Children’s entitlement to education, protective services, and other supports is determined by age;
2. Dates of birth on CIC issued documentation are frequently erroneous;
3. The process for changing such information is cumbersome, onerous, and lengthy, taking time that child do not have;
4. There are few security implications for altering birth dates for minors;

1. Canada is a party to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons;

1. The Protocol includes assistance to and protection of trafficked persons;

1. The federal government has a responsibility for immigration and settlement;

1. Provincial Ministries of Education have existing commitments to address stereotypes through anti-bullying and anti-racism principles of awareness, empathy, engagement, cultural sensitivity and empowerment;
2. Extensive efforts have been made to develop curriculum modifications to address the needs of newcomer students;
3. Schools are central to inculcating citizenship values among all Canadian youth;

1. The monitoring system implemented by CIC as part of recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program is voluntary and therefore ineffective;
2. Abuses of Temporary Foreign Workers by employers are widespread and have been well documented;

1. Canada has given itself a “Strategic Framework to Foster Immigration to Francophone Minority Communities” for francophone immigration outside of Québec. The strategy was crafted by the federal and provincial governments, at the request and with the participation of francophone communities outside of Québec;
2. Canada's current activities of recruitment of francophone immigrants abroad are mostly targeted at francophone countries in Europe, to the detriment of francophone countries in other regions of the world;
3. Francophone immigrants, most of them belonging to racialized communities, face differential treatment and experience poor outcomes in the Canadian labour market and other areas of Canadian life;
4. Yearly target levels for francophone immigration outside of Québec continue to be below the levels needed to ensure the demographic viability of francophone communities outside of Québec;
5. Refugee and immigrant serving organizations outside of Québec have a key role to play in supporting francophone immigrants’ settlement and integration, even if they do not provide services in French;

1. The government of Canada is proposing to introduce a specified period of conditional permanent residence for some sponsored spouses and partners;
2. Making permanent residence for the sponsored partner conditional puts all the power into the hands of sponsor, who may use the precarity of the partner’s status as a tool for manipulation;
3. The proposed conditional permanent residency would represent a major step backwards in Canadian immigration policy, increase inequalities in relationships between spouses, and put women in particular at heightened risk of violence and exploitation;