CCR Resolutions Database

1. There are massive human rights abuses against Sierra Leonean refugees in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and the Gambia;
2. The CCR appreciates the special Sierra Leone program introduced by the federal government in 2000-2001;

1. Numerous members of CCR and other refugee advocates have criticized the lack of an effective procedure to deal with complaints about Convention Refugee Determination Division members' and Refugee Claims Officers' behaviour and competence;
2. The complaint procedures and protocols implemented, to date, by the Immigration and Refugee Board have failed to adequately address the concerns of refugees and their advocates;

1. A National Settlement Service Standards (NSSS) Framework was developed by the CCR through a National Consultation process that involved a broad range of individuals and agencies providing settlement services to immigrants, refugees and refugee claimants;
2. The CCR adopted in principle the NSSS framework as presented by the Working Group on Settlement in June 2000 (Res. 1, Jun. 00);
3. The National Settlement Service Standards Steering Committee was asked to develop a plan to implement this framework across Canada;

1. In resolution 9 of November 1996, the CCR committed itself to exposing atrocities by the Sudanese government upon the people of southern Sudan;
2. Anglican members of their refugee network have worked with Sudanese in Canada to sponsor refugees from Sudan;
3. The war in Sudan, which is in part responsible for the displacement of millions of people, has been fuelled by oil revenues from the expanding operation in which Talisman Energy is a major partner;
4. The national pension fund of the Anglican Church of Canada has invested heavily in the Talisman shares;

1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada does not consistently provide refugee claimants with interpreters at eligibility interviews;
2. The notes which are produced by Citizenship and Immigration Canada at eligibility interviews are given great weight at hearings before the Convention Refugee Determination Division;
3. The lack of interpretation at an eligibility interview can and does create confusion and misunderstanding between refugee claimants and Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials;

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;

1. HIV positive persons are not a threat to public health or safety;
2. Instituting mandatory HIV testing for all prospective immigrants is discriminatory since this would be the only group for whom mandatory testing is imposed;
3. Testing could significantly harm people identified as being HIV positive who live in countries with coercive laws or practice;

on November 29, 2000, the Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH)representatives in attendance at the SAH Forum voted on and passed with an overwhelming majority three resolutions expressing their support for:

1. formally situating the SAH network within CCR, 2. submitting an SAH application for the In-Canada Service-Provider contract,
2. submitting this proposal under the umbrella of CCR;

1. There are minor orphans of war or civil strife or in other refugee-like situations whose future is limited without resettlement;
2. Current procedures for the sponsorship of orphaned minors are inadequate;

1. All levels of government and other funding organizations recognize and actively promote the benefits of volunteering to the community at large and to the individual volunteers;
2. Refugees look to volunteer work to gain Canadian experience and to reduce social isolation;
3. In Ontario refugees are required to do volunteer work in order to receive social assistance ("workfare program");
4. CIC BC Region has issued a communiqué fact sheet to inform the voluntary sector that volunteerism is a form of work and as such requires an employment authorization prior to participation in volunteer work;
5. There are similar problems arising in other provinces across Canada;
6. This puts an undue obligation on the voluntary sector organizations to monitor and police this requirement and inhibits refugees from active participation in the community during the initial settlement period;

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. 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. There is a massive exodus of persons of Eritrean ethnicity to neighbouring countries, particularly Sudan, as well as massive internal displacement, due to the escalating war between Ethiopia and Eritrea;
2. Due to the war, the UNHCR is unable to protect Eritreans;

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 resolution was passed in May 1999 relating to the development of National Settlement Standards through a process presented by a Settlement Standards Steering Committee;
2. This process has led to the development of the National Settlement Service Standards Framework document presented in Vancouver (spring 2000);

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. 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. There is a national crisis of homelessness and lack of affordable housing;
2. Immigrants, refugees and visible minorities face significant racism in the private housing market;
3. In some large cities in Canada, newcomers make up a large portion of the shelter population;
4. We deplore the "passing of the buck" by which different levels of government deny that newcomers' housing issues are their responsibility;
5. Across the country income assistance rates are unrealistic in light of housing costs;
6. There are many problems in accessing income support services across the country;
7. We applaud the new southern Ontario project of issuing ID to assist claimants at port of entries in accessing services;

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. 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. Immigrants and refugees come to Canada with a wealth of experience and education;
2. Recent studies have shown that it is taking longer for new arrivals to "catch up" to Canadian born individuals;
3. There is a federal budget surplus;

1. Canada has recognized the need for the protection of Sudanese, and has included Sudan on the Source Country schedule;
2. There is no permanent Canadian processing presence in the Sudan;
3. Displaced Sudanese are forced to flee in great danger;
4. A visa officer is deployed to the Sudan extremely seldom. This is an inadequate response to the profound protection needs;

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. Countries interpret the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees on the basis of widely differing standards and criteria;
2. CIC is inconsistent in its policy in interpreting what constitutes a durable solution;

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;