Inland Protection

1. Women in general and refugee women in particular are subjected to different forms of discrimination in Canada;
2. Canada is internationally committed to work towards elimination of all forms of discrimination against women;
3. There is a significant international instrument to that effect;
4. An optional protocol to the UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women is ready for accession at the General Assembly of the United Nations
5. The optional protocol provides an excellent opportunity for individual women to complain to the related UN Committee;

1. Evidence indicates that some survivors of torture are being re-traumatized by the experience of the refugee hearing process;
2. The determination of refugee status for survivors of torture presents evidentiary complexities for the IRB;
3. The CCR has endorsed a detailed written proposal for guidelines for the determination of torture survivors before the IRB;

1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada decided to detain en masse migrants from the People's Republic of China arriving at Canada's West Coast;
2. CIC compounded its errors by detaining the majority of the migrants in Prince George, several hundred kilometres from counsel and the IRB;
3. Consequently some of these Chinese migrants continue to be denied full access to counsel and right to choice of counsel;
4. These Chinese migrants continue to be detained without individual assessment and based upon general and stereotypical profile of refugee claimants from Fujian Province of China;
5. The minors within these groups have been handcuffed and strip-searched and there are allegations that some were physically assaulted;

there are inconsistencies from province to province about the timing and method, by CIC, of processing refugee claimants which frequently leave claimants unable to access social services, medical care, housing and schooling for children;

1. Refugees and immigrants who apply for permanent residence are required to undergo security screening by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the security review unit of the Department of Citizenship & Immigration (SRU);
2. Refugees and immigrants often face undue delays in acquiring permanent residence status as a result of prolonged security screenings by CSIS and SRU;
3. The security screening process remains unfair and intimidating to many refugees and immigrants, particularly since many cannot obtain information about the status of their applications or reasons for long delays;
4. The CCR adopted Resolution 13 of May 1998 and Resolution 13 of November 1998 on landing delays for security reasons and assessments;
5. Refugees and immigrants who question the integrity, fairness, duration, and impact of the security screening process can file a complaint with the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC);
6. SIRC is mandated to investigate such complaints and make recommendations thereon;
7. Such complaints have been filed with SIRC and in April 2000, SIRC issued reports on its findings with recommendations;
8. The SIRC reports unequivocally exonerated the complainants and made a number of recommendations;
9. These recommendations included a recommendation that complainants’ applications for permanent residence be processed for landing;

1. A draft response to Bill C-31 has been discussed by the Working Groups;
2. The recommendations contained in that draft response have been debated in the Working Groups;

1. The UN is organizing in South Africa a World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia & Related Intolerance to be held in July 2001;
2. Refugees and asylum seekers experience specific forms of xenophobia and intolerance not experienced by other migrants;
3. The World Conference has the long term potential to not only improve the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Canada but to improve their treatment world-wide;
4. The CCR has an anti-racism policy;

1. Refugee participation is of major concern to the CCR and there are resolutions to that effect;
2. Refugees and refugee communities are directly affected by Canadian immigration policies, and already have been involved in their own advocacy;
3. There is a need for strengthening cooperation and collaboration between the CCR on the one hand and refugee communities on the other;

1. The conflict which started as a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea in March 1998 has escalated to total war combined with widespread famine;
2. The Ethiopian government has stripped persons of ethnic Eritrean descent of their Ethiopian citizenship;
3. Currently both acknowledged Eritrean citizens and those of possible Eritrean descent are seen as defacto Eritrean citizens, and are in danger of removal from Canada;

1. CIC has been using P&I, a private company, to remove African nationals from Canada to Africa;
2. The deportees have been forcibly detained and unlawfully confined by a private company;