Inland Protection

1. Canada has suspended deportations to Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (ex-Zaire), Afghanistan, Rwanda, & Burundi;
2. CIC does not consider this policy to cover removals to third countries, principally the United States;
3. A significant numbers of claimants arrive at Canadian border points via the United States, often as a result of Canadian interdiction practices;
4. A growing number of refused refugee claimants face an imminent danger of being removed to the United States, a country which at present has no suspension of deportations to the above-named countries;
5. The CCR has written several times to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in the spring and summer of 1998, asking her to suspend removals of these individuals to the United States;
6. CIC has to date maintained its policy;

The nomination process and the renewal of mandates at the IRB do not have the confidence of the legal and human rights communities;

1. The Immigration and Refugee Board has begun to conduct refugee hearings using video-conferencing whereby IRB members in one city conduct hearings on claimants in another city;
2. The IRB has done no analysis of the impact of such video-conference hearings on the ability of claimants to have a fair hearing;
3. The use of video-conference hearings is contrary to the IRB's own stated policy of making the setting of refugee claims less intimidating and less formal;
4. The use of video-conferencing for refugee hearings is a denial of due process to refugee claimants;
5. Videoconferencing is also being used in detention reviews, similarly compromising the rights of detainees to a fair hearing;

1. The CCR is concerned that the drive for efficiency at the CRDD is resulting in the denial of the right of claimants to full and fair hearings;
2. The CCR is concerned about allegations of bias by members at the CRDD in their rendering of decisions in claims based on sexual orientation;
3. The CCR is concerned that the inability of lawyers to obtain conventional tape recordings of CRDD hearings is placing obstacles in the way of a claimant's right and a lawyer's ability to apply properly for leave to commence judicial review proceedings at the federal court;
4. The CCR is concerned about the misconduct by RCOs during refugee claim hearings;

1. The CCR supports the right of the Canadian government to deny refuge to people who have committed crimes against humanity and to others who pose serious national security threats, except where refoulement is in contravention of the Convention Against Torture or where there will be a risk of capital punishment;
2. It is the right and duty of the state to ensure that a just system for identifying such persons is in place;
3. The definitions in the Immigration Act relating to inadmissibility on the basis of security are over-broad;
4. Decisions regarding security inadmissibility are made without respecting the due process rights of those affected;
5. There is no time limit within which a decision may be made, leading to indefinite delays for some of those affected;

1. Various panels of the Refugee Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board have produced personal information forms and filed them in evidence in the hearings of other claims;
2. The new personal information form asks claimants to provide reasons why their claims should not be disclosed in the hearings of other claims;
3. The Refugee Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board has proposed new rules for the Division which would allow disclosure of personal information forms in the hearings of other claims;
4. Disclosure of personal information forms in the hearings of other claims turns the forms from confidential documents to public documents;
5. Requiring refugee claims to be made in public is antithetical to refugee protection;

1. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has proposed in a white paper that the mandate of the Immigration and Refugee Board be expanded to include adjudication on whether persons face risks in returning to their countries of nationality other than those risks covered by the Refugee Convention;
2. It has been announced that Citizenship and Immigration Canada will soon be drafting legislation to embody the above mentioned proposal;

1. Stateless people have been and are currently detained and/or deported by Canada to go into orbit, or detention or limbo elsewhere;
2. There is a 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons to protect such persons, which the UN High Commission for Refugees is promoting but which Canada has not ratified;

1. Bill S-8, recently introduced as a private member's bill in the Senate, would amend the Immigration Act to give powers to interdict ships and their passengers;
2. The measures proposed in the bill would seriously undermine refugee protection and put Canada at risk of violating its international human rights obligations;
3. The bill promotes prejudicial treatment of refugees;

1. There has been a serious increase in generalized violence and civil unrest in Angola and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville);
2. A number of individuals are in imminent danger of removal to these countries;
3. Several representations have already been made to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to suspend removals to Angola and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville);
4. The Advisory Committee on Country Conditions for Removal has not met since February 1997;