In Committee

CIMM#34: Jenny’s motion for the committee to study the government’s response to the final report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan and to invite various officials to provide an update

The motion reads as follows:
That the committee study the government’s response to the final report of the Special Committee on Afghanistan entitled “Honouring Canada’s Legacy in Afghanistan: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis and Helping People Reach Safety”, following the tabling of the report; that the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Minister of National Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, and their officials, with two hours allocated for each department, to provide an update on which of the 37 recommendations related to their portfolio they have acted on and/or its progress and which they will not implement with an explanation; and that the committee report its findings to the House.

CIM#34: Addressing the nature of a new amendment

CIMM#32: Addressing the casue of processing delay and backlog

CIMM#32: Processing delays relate to discrimination

CIMM#32: What would government do with half a million migrant workers with their work permits expired?

CIMM#32: Addressing issues of processing delays and backlogs

AFGN COMMITTEE REPORT - Honouring Canada’s Legacy in Afghanistan: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis and Helping People Reach Safety

The NDP stands firmly and fully in support of these calls for action.  The NDP is urgently calling on the Government of Canada to adopt the following recommendations.   

Recommendation 1: 

That the Government of Canada ensure that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reduce the documentation requirements and allow persecuted Afghans’ paperwork and biometrics to be completed when they are safely on Canadian soil.

Recommendation 2:

That the Government of Canada provide evacuation flights to Afghans in third countries.

Recommendation 3:

That the Government of Canada apply the special immigration measures for Ukraine to Afghanistan.

Recommendation 4:

That the Government of Canada expand and renew the special immigration measures for Afghans for another year, so that those who are eligible have another opportunity to apply. 

CIMM#28: Potential appeal system for temporary resident visa applications

I move to amend Bill C-242 by adding, before line 5 on page 1, the following new clause:

1.1 Subsection 14(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is amended by adding the following after paragraph (c):

(c.1) special circumstances to be taken into account in the processing of temporary resident visa applications;

(c.2) a review process for decisions made in relation to temporary resident visa applications;

AFGN#16: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

AFGN#15: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

AFGN#14: Meeting Requested by Four Members of the Committee to Discuss the Production of Documents Prior to the Presentation of the Committee's Report

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I want to get some clarity. If the issue is about national security, Madam Damoff's amendment suggests that we seek government officials to confirm that national security could be put in jeopardy if this were provided to us. If, in fact, that is confirmed and that is the case, NSICOP would be the appropriate place to send this to, because that committee was established to deal with such matters.
It is my understanding, and perhaps the clerk can confirm, that we have a member of Parliament from each party represented at that committee. Is that not the case? If that's the case, we have to have some faith in our colleagues on that committee to do the due diligence on the work there.
If the issue is not around national security and that was not confirmed by the officials, then there is a real question about it being sent to NSICOP. I would think that's not the appropriate thing to do and we should have the document sent to this committee, having gone through the regular process of redaction, although I note that in the original motion there is no call for redaction of any sort. There is none of the language that normally shows up on cabinet confidentiality, national security issues or privacy redactions that should be vetted by the law clerk. The original motion does not provide for that either.
Given that the amendment is saying it will be subject to confirmation that national security is at issue, that is an important piece. If that confirmation does not come about on Monday, then it puts this issue in a different place, and we should have further discussion about it.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

AFGN#13: Humanitarian Assistance for the Afghan people

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Thank you. In the instance where biometrics could not be obtained for obvious reasons.... The government is saying that people have to go to the Taliban office to get a passport. You can imagine what that will be like. There will absolutely be a bull's eye put on them. They will not be able to get those passports, and without those passports, they cannot get to a third country. Without getting to a third country, they cannot get to safety.
From that perspective, if we've exhausted all of these options, given that people's lives hang in the balance, should the government then waive the biometrics and other documentation requirements until the Afghans are safely here in Canada? Once they're safe on Canadian soil, we can then go through the process and do all of that work.

Warda Meighen, Partner, Landings LLP
Yes. I think that's something we've done in other contexts. We've done that in the context of Kosovo, for example, with onshore processing. Absolutely we should look at that if biometrics in Afghanistan is just not working. To the extent that we have inadmissible individuals who are found on Canadian soil, we have the provisions in our immigration regime to deal with that. We shouldn't look at that as a failure of the system. It's actually the system working. We have mechanisms in the immigration regime to take care of inadmissible persons when they're found within the biometrics process, I'm sure.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
Thank you. Dr. Powell, right now the referral agencies that the government is accepting for Afghans are very limited. Why do you think it is important for the minister to expand the referral organizations for resettlement to other qualified and established civil society organizations that are connected to vulnerable refugees such as members from the LGBTQ2+ communities?

Dr. Kimahli Powell, Executive Director, Rainbow Railroad
Thank you for the question. You know, as I said in my remarks, the government clearly identified vulnerable populations. For the LGBTQI+ community, there are specific vulnerabilities and barriers to adequately identifying those persons. There was a clear expectation set on August 13 when those vulnerable populations were announced. We have a rare ability, having demonstrated expertise in evacuating persons, to provide assistance to fulfill the government's promise to resettle those persons. A referring partnership is the tool to allow us to do that.

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC, NDP
You are also calling on the government to immediately resettle 300 at-risk LGBTQ2+ Afghan refugees. Should the government do this as a special immigration measure in addition to the 40,000 Afghan refugees they have already announced as their measure? The reason I ask this is that those numbers are actually filling up really fast now, and there aren't that many spots left. I fear that people will be left behind.

Dr. Kimahli Powell, Executive Director, Rainbow Railroad
This is a specific ask in addition to the 40,000 committed, because at this stage we do not know if they're going to meet that target. So the answer is yes.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting