Posted by admin on Apr 7th, 2010
By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, April 7, 2010 6:49pm
OTTAWA — The percentage of refugee claims processed each year has dropped dramatically since the Conservatives came to power, setting the stage for the government’s new refugee reform, says Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis. “They created a crisis and the (backlog) numbers went up and when the numbers went up then they said they had to fix it.†However, Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, says the government inherited a broken system and introduced its reform because Band-Aid solutions will no longer work.
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Posted by admin on Apr 7th, 2010
By Anca Gurzu, Embassy Mag, Published April 7, 2010
When Immigration Minister Jason Kenney unveiled his proposed refugee reform package last week, a key aspect was the creation of a “safe countries” list. The list, the minister said, would be an additional tool in addressing massive spikes of unfounded claims from certain democratic countries that had strong human rights records. At the same time, aware that such a list could result in a public and media backlash, Mr. Kenney was quick to point out that many other European countries have been successfully using this method. However, legal experts are pointing to a major difference between Canada’s proposed legislation and that of other European countries: the word “safe” doesn’t appear anywhere in the Canadian bill. This omission, they say, places too much legal discretion in the hands of the minister and raises serious questions about the law’s potential use.
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Posted by admin on Apr 6th, 2010
By NORMA GREENAWY, Canwest News Service. April 6, 2010
Lawyer Heather Neufeld says it can take weeks and even months for refugee clients to trust her enough to divulge the grisly details of how they were gang raped by guards in a foreign jail, or how they endured years of beatings and sexual abuse by gun-wielding husbands. Neufeld says these are the people she worries about most when examining the federal government’s new proposals to create a “fair and faster” system for handling refugee claims in Canada. Under the reforms, prospective refugees would get an oral hearing within 60 days of making their claim – down from the current average of 19 months.
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Posted by admin on Apr 2nd, 2010
Apr 2 2010 – 8:29pm, John Bonnar, rabble.ca
Members of the newly formed Immigration Network took a swipe at Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s proposed immigration reforms Wednesday at a press conference outside the Immigration and Refugee Board Canada regional office in downtown Toronto. Under the proposed changes, Kenney promised quicker decisions on asylum claims and faster protection to those in need.
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Posted by admin on Apr 1st, 2010
The Globe And Mail, Thu Apr 1 2010
TORONTO — Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney wants provinces to review their welfare programs to address the possibility they are creating incentives for dubious refugee claims linked to criminal networks. Mr. Kenney, who unveiled proposed streamlined rules for asylum seekers earlier this week, said countries complain that Canada’s generous social support measures encourage abuse of the refugee system. “When I meet with foreign governments, they say, ‘You’re to blame.’ They say,’You’ve got a pull factor in Canada.’ Now one of the pull factors that they’ve identified – this is something I’ve just raised with some of the provincial governments – is the generosity of our social welfare schemes,” Mr. Kenney told The Globe’s editorial board yesterday.
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