CCR Resolutions Database

1. Refugee claimants not infrequently find themselves in detention even after they have been found eligible;
2. All persons detained in an Immigration Holding Centre are routinely transported to and from hearings in handcuffs and those held in jail (detained under Immigration Act) are conveyed in handcuffs and leg irons;
3. These restraints are in certain cases not removed even when a refugee claim is heard before the IRB;
4. This seems to contradict the spirit in which a refugee claim is supposed to be made;
5. The practice is a violation of UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners;

1. Proposed amendments to the Immigration Act recently announced by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration will result in one member IRB hearings thereby removing important procedural protections from refugee claimants and increasing the chance of incorrect IRB decisions;
2. The Minister has previously acknowledged the need for an appeal on the merits for IRB decisions;
3. The Minister has rejected the recommendations of the Davis/Waldman report and other consultations which support the establishment of an appeal on the merits for IRB decisions;
4. Past conclusions of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR have stated that signatories to the Refugee Convention should have a process whereby refugee claimants may appeal the merits of a negative decision on their refugee claims;

1. There have been many refugees found ineligible for government or private sponsorship because of unreasonable decisions by visa officers concerning issues pursuant to S. 19 (1)(e) and S. 19 (1)(f),(k) and (l) of the Immigration Act;
2. The exception set out in 19(1)(f) establishes no procedure to determine whether a refugee is "detrimental to the national interest";
3. The phrase "detrimental to the national interest" is too vague and uncertain and needs to be defined;

1. The U.S. standards for refugee protection are lower than those in Canada and the implementation of a safe country agreement will negatively affect thousands of refugee claimants coming to Canada from the U.S.;
2. On February 25, 1995 Prime Minister Chrétien and President Clinton announced that they are seeking a Safe Country Agreement under the Joint Border Management Accord despite the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration's initial statements that he was against such an agreement;
3. The CCR in previous resolutions has demanded significant guarantees before such an agreement is signed;

1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada through its foreign missions, is requesting a large number of families to submit to DNA testing as proof of relationships prior to approval for sponsorship;
2. The DNA tests are being requested mainly for families from Third World countries;
3. The DNA tests are very expensive, costing over $1200 for a family of two and more for large families, thus adding a further unbearable financial and emotional burden to families already struggling to raise money to pay processing fees, the Head Tax and transportation costs, and causing unacceptable delays in family re-unification;
4. Current statistics show that over 90% of tests done to date have proved the families' relationships;
5. The small number of negative test results cannot justify the financial burden imposed on others by widespread testing;
6. Too much power is being wielded by the Canadian visa posts abroad in frequently requesting these tests when no reasonable grounds for doing so have been clearly established;

1. The Right of Landing fee is discriminatory, exclusionary and racist because of the vast variance in country and individual income around the world;
2. A refugee is accepted or selected for landing in Canada in order to provide protection against persecution, and usually has neither the cash nor a source of income with which to pay the right of landing fee;
3. Refugees processed through the inland determination system are already subjected to other heavy processing fees;
4. The Minister in his address to Parliament in November 1994 acknowledged that refugees have special needs and problems;
5. The UNHCR has documented that no other country in the world charges landing fees to refugees;

1. The Secretary General of the United Nations, on November 18, 1994, called for a peacekeeping operation to establish security in the Rwandan refugee camps in the Kivu region of Zaire;
2. The CCR held a day on the lessons from Rwanda on November 24, 1994 at which a number of conclusions were reached;

1. There are reports coming out of Iran and resolutions of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations about the Tehran regime's treatment of women;
2. Due to the terrible situation of women and the barbaric tortures practised against political prisoners a catastrophic situation has been created forcing women's mass escape from Iran;

1. The Canadian Council for Refugees has acted as a convenor of master agreement holders and sponsoring groups throughout the government's private sponsorship review;
2. There is a widely recognized need for improved communication between private sponsoring organizations and the government;
3. Organizations which sponsor refugees have a genuine and vested interest in the smooth running and success of the private sponsorship program;

1. The government of Canada continues not to meet the announced levels for government-assisted refugees;
2. Sufficient funds must be allocated to the AAP program in order to meet announced levels;
3. Accepted refugees in Canada have been separated from their immediate families at risk abroad;

1. Current research and documentation identifies extra barriers impeding the successful integration of adolescent newcomers, such as language, racism and interrupted schooling;
2. Canada's social and economic resources are increased when newcomer youth become equal participants in Canadian society;
3. Completion of formal education, labour force participation and economic self-sufficiency are essential to equal participation;
4. There is a lack of adequate programming for adolescent newcomers to address identified barriers;

1. The government of Canada has historically had a commitment to the resettlement of refugees from abroad and indeed this commitment is incorporated in the Immigration Act;
2. The government of Canada has a humanitarian obligation to refugees;
3. Government assistance has always been the primary program for resettlement;
4. Private sponsorship is a complementary program to government assistance and has always been understood by the voluntary sector to be an opportunity to respond to refugees above and beyond the government's commitment;
5. Refugee concerns have been separated from immigration concerns in the ten-year framework;
6. The formation of the "NGO-government Committee on Private Sponsorship" could result in a shift in government practice away from Canada's commitment to the admission of refugees;

1. The Canadian Council of Churches and the Inter-Church Committee for Refugees have cooperated in the preparation of a brief submitted by ICCR to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about non-citizen children;
2. The CCR meets regularly with senior immigration officials;

There are many refugees in need of protection through resettlement who may fall outside the Convention refugee definition;

1. The situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate such that from the capital city of Kabul alone over 1,000 refugees flee daily, and the country is left void of any supporting infrastructure;
2. Afghanistan remains one of the largest refugee-producing countries as a result of the continuing war;
3. The U.N. has started a process of discussion and negotiations through a U.N. delegation headed by Mahmood Mestiri with the various factions involved in the Afghan conflict;
4. Canada is internationally respected for its commitment to peace, and is seen as an important player with a strong voice at the U.N.;

1. The Parliamentary Committee hearing submissions on Bill C-44 has requested the CCR to make a submission on alternatives to the provisions of that Bill;
2. A submission has been prepared by David Matas which was presented to the Refugee Protection Working Group on November 25, 1994;

1. The economic recession has created an increase in anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments;
2. The government has also contributed to the propagation of damaging myths about refugees and immigrants by releasing data on sponsorship breakdown without providing the appropriate context;

1. The CCR has passed Resolution # 11 (Nov. 92) and Resolution #18 (Nov. 93) condemning landmines;
2. Anti-personnel landmines continue to kill or injure thousands of civilians, including refugees and returnees, especially from/in: Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Mozambique, Somalia and Sudan;
3. Landmines impose a threat to humanity by causing indiscriminate harm and suffering, and render entire regions socially, economically and agriculturally depressed, without the possibility of reconstruction and rehabilitation long after the cessation of conflict;
4. Minister Ouellet has suggested that a Canadian Task Force on Landmines be established; there is also opportunity for involvement in the examination of the Landmine Protocol (Protocol II) of the Convention on Inhumane Weapons (1980) at the Review Conference on the Convention in September 1995;
5. There is an emerging Canadian Coalition on Landmines and an International Campaign to raise public awareness on the issue of landmines;

1. The CCR is committed to seeking refugee policies and practices guided by principles of refugee protection. We believe in the importance of having people who have worked with refugee communities in positions of responsibility within the Immigration and Refugee Board;
2. The CCR has developed a position on these matters entitled "Position on Essential Principles in Response to Hathaway and Davis/Waldman Reports" (September 1994);
3. The CCR does not know the full details of the complaints made against Michael Schelew, nor of the process which led to his suspension;

1. The CCR advocates on behalf of the human rights of refugees in Canada and abroad;
2. Many clients of our constituent organizations are Somalis who have fled to Canada due to the torture and persecution they have suffered in their homeland at the hands of other Somalis;
3. Canada's reputation as a country which respects human rights is the reason many refugees chose our country as a place of asylum;
4. The CCR is therefore shocked that members of the Canadian military have been involved in the torture of a Somali youth, and that there are allegations of other serious abuses of Somalis by Canadian military personnel;

1. The "10 Year Framework" refers to the creation of a National Clearing House or Information Sharing Network on Settlement;
2. CCR is the national organization representing NGOs serving newcomers to Canada;

1. The CCR is committed to promoting the rights and protection of refugee women, including refugee women at risk;
2. The Women at Risk review is complete and awaiting recommendations;
3. The CCR has developed the following recommendations within its document 'Women at Risk: Developing Recommendations':
   1. REC.1 The Canadian Women at Risk (AWR) programme should respond to women at risk. Whereas the Canadian AWR programme does not respond effectively to women in urgent need of resettlement, special mechanisms should be established, such as doing medical checks upon arrival in Canada, providing transportation grants, making use of Minister's Permits, and establishing processing timelines.

      REC.2 The AWR program should include women fleeing gender-based persecution, either in the country of origin or in the country of asylum.

      REC. 3 The Resettlement from Abroad Category should be established and used for processing AWR. The category should use the definition outlined in Specific Recommendation R7 of the report of Issue Group 3 of the 1994 Immigration Consultation.

      REC.4 The successful establishment component of admissibility criteria should be eliminated for refugees in urgent need of protection, especially refugee women.

      REC.5 Visa officers should accept and process expeditiously the referrals of Women at Risk cases from UNHCR and NGOs without an interview for the details of the persecution experience.

      REC.6 Canada should work with the UNHCR and NGOs in countries of first asylum where this will enable it to respond more effectively to refugee women at risk.

      REC.7 The training of visa officers around the issues concerning refugee women should be further improved, eg. to cover the psycho-social sequelae to trauma and expediting cases.

      REC.8 AWR programme should be managed as a separate programme within Citizenship and Immigration, enabling a more coherent implementation. All categories of women at risk should receive a transportation grant.

      REC.9 Citizenship and Immigration should implement mechanisms to measure the success of the AWR programme, which would include feedback from all programme participants. Research should be conducted on refugee women`s experiences of resettlement, including their adaptation skills and other personal resources. A monitoring system needs to be established to enable the tracking of cases from the point of referral to the end of the sponsoring period. This information would be used in visa training and the improvement of AWR policy and operations.

      REC.10 A full time position should be created within Citizenship and Immigration for the promotion and administration of the AWR programme.

      REC.11 Where no sponsors are immediately available, Canada should utilize reception centres across the country to accommodate women at risk upon arrival for an optional intensive three to six month period of healing and orientation. During this time, sponsors would be found.

      REC.12 The number of women admitted under the Women at Risk programme should increase. Canada should set an annual minimum target of the number of women it seeks to assist through the AWR programme, effective immediately.

1. C&I has not met their own targets for processing claims, processing requests for permits or conducting reviews in a consistent or timely manner;
2. There appears to be routine discrimination against people of colour within some parts of the Department, and there are regular reports of negative verbal comments against refugee or immigrant clients;
3. The Department appears to have lost sight of the principle of client service, and its frontline employees are angry, confused and overwhelmed;
4. C&I is likely to be the subject of continued resource reductions;