Registration - In-house Organization

Subject Matters

• Immigration
• Justice and Law Enforcement

Subject Matter Details

Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit

• Settlement services - advocate for access to effective settlement services funded by government for newcomers to Canada.

Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit, Policies or Program

• Availability of legal aid to refugee claimants and other vulnerable migrants, including the role of the federal government in providing adequate funding to provinces to cover the costs of legal aid.

Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution

• Bill C-97, Budget Implementation Act, Part 4, Division 16, with respect to proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act affecting the rights of refugee claimants.
• Protection of trafficked persons - advocating for change of Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to guarantee temporary and permanent protection for trafficked persons
• Regularization of persons without status - promoting measures to allow persons in Canada without status to obtain permanent residence, including advocating for regularization of "legacy" claimants, ie. those who made a refugee claim before 15 December 2012.
• The Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, with respect to the 2015 amendment allowing provinces to impose minimum residency requirements on newly arrived refugee claimants.

Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution, Policies or Program

• CBSA complaint mechanism - calling for an independent effective complaint and accountability mechanism for CBSA.
• Removals of permanent residents on the basis of criminal inadmissibility, particularly in the wake of amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act made in 2013. CCR's concern relates to lack of due consideration of humanitarian and compassionate factors in making removals, particularly of long-term residents.

Policies or Program

• CBSA policies relating to children and to violence against women - calling for CBSA to adopt comprehensive policies to ensure respect of the best interests of the child and sensitivity to issues of violence against women in all areas, including investigations, issuance of removal orders, detention and deportation.
• Cessation - following changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in 2012 loss of refugee status through cessation results (in some cases) in loss of permanent residence. Raising concerns (with CBSA, CIC and IRB) about current practices regarding cessation applications and the impacts on long-term residents.
• Citizenship Act and Regulations: advocate for lessening of barriers to applications, particularly for unaccompanied minors, persons with disabilities, language and knowledge test and citizenship fees.
• Immigration detention policies - advocating for the end to the immigration detention of children and families and for reduction in immigration detention, including through the introduction of fair and effective alternatives to detention.
• Independence of refugee determination at the Immigration and Refugee Board - calling for the government to preserve refugee status determination at the IRB in any reforms concerned in the wake of the IRB Review (report expected to be published in June 2018).
• Monitor Immigration and Refugee Board policies, particular with respect to detention reviews and refugee determinations, and advocate for policies that respect the rights of non-citizens appearing before the IRB.
• Refugee claim process - ensuring access to the refugee claim process for all who want to make a claim and the fair and timely determination of refugee claims
• Refugee resettlement - obtain effective, fair and timely resettlement for a greater number of refugees, including through the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. Selection should be based on protection needs of refugees.
• Removals to situations of risk - calling for suspension of removals to countries of generalized risk and policies ensuring individuals at risk have removal deferred.
• Statelessness - advocate for immigration and citizenship policies that reduce statelessness, and for Canada to sign the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons.

Policies or Program, Regulation

• Family reunification - calling for effective and timely family reunification in Canada through the immigration program, through elimination or reduction of barriers such as slow processing times especially for accepted refugees, DNA testing, Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulation 117(9)(d)
• Temporary Foreign Workers - protection of individual rights. The CCR is concerned about the rights of temporary foreign workers and the impact on Canadian society of the program which has expanded greatly in recent years.
• US-Canada safe third country agreement - oppose denial of access to refugee determination in Canada on the basis of the Safe Third Country Agreement

Communication Techniques

• Written communication
• Oral communication
• Grass-roots communication

Government Institutions

• Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
• Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
• House of Commons
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
• Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB)
• Justice Canada (JC)
• Public Safety Canada (PS)
• Senate of Canada

Address:
6839 DROLET Suite 301
MONTREAL, QC  H2S 2T1
Canada

Telephone number: 514-277-7223  Ext. 2