STATEMENT: On Discontinuation of Refugee Family Reunification Policy

Jenny Kwan Statement on Discontinuation of Refugee Family Reunification Policy

This decision by Immigration Minister Lina Diab is deeply troubling because the government has provided no credible explanation for suddenly ending a policy that allowed refugees to reunite with family members who were not initially declared on their applications. If there were no issues identified with the policy, why was it abruptly changed? Refugees should not be punished for circumstances beyond their control, particularly when they have already endured displacement, conflict and separation from their loved ones.

It is also frankly absurd for the government to tell these families to simply apply through the humanitarian and compassionate process. The Minister knows very well that H&C applications can involve extraordinarily long processing times, meaning this is not a genuine solution for families facing prolonged separation. With H&C admissions targeted at just 1,100 people in 2026 and 1,000 in 2027, the prospect of families being reunited expeditiously is effectively negligible. Telling families in these circumstances to get in line for a severely backlogged H&C process is not family reunification—it is asking people who have already waited years to wait indefinitely. The government needs to reverse this decision and provide a fair, timely pathway for refugee families to be reunited. Minister Diab needs to explain why she has chosen to close a pathway to family reunification that was specifically designed to address gaps in the system. Canada should be making family reunification processes more administratively efficient, not marginalizing refugees even further.

Toronto Star: Contract cancelled for RCMP’s grounded Black Hawk helicopter

OTTAWA — A $7.5-million contract for one of the RCMP’s Black Hawk helicopters has been cancelled, months after the Star revealed the U.S.-made aircraft was grounded for being ineligible to use for border patrols in Canada.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said in a written statement to the Star on Tuesday that the government and Ottawa-based Helicopter Transport Services (HTS) “have agreed to terminate the agreement by mutual consent.”

The statement did not say if an ongoing probe into the contract had found wrongdoing by the RCMP or HTS, which won the contract despite questions about whether the helicopter met the licensing requirements to be used for border patrols in Canada.

It also did not say how much money, if any, the RCMP had paid HTS under the contract before it was cancelled.

NDP Public Safety critic Jenny Kwan told the Star she supports the contract’s cancellation but questioned why it was authorized in the first place.

“It is a serious failure of procurement oversight,” Kwan wrote in a statement.

“Canadians deserve to know who approved this contract, how much public dollars were on the hook with this debacle, and what steps will be taken to ensure this kind of procurement failure does not happen again.”

Anandasangaree has defended the use of the Black Hawks as an “off-the-shelf fix” that was implemented quickly to get around procurement challenges, and said their long-term use will be assessed.

*Click image or link to read the full story - https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/contract-cancelled-for-rcmp-s-grounded-black-hawk-helicopter/article_26c08516-3d6a-41ed-9e31-b09bff83ba4f.html

CBC News: Canadian citizenship certificate applications now facing nearly 3-year delays

Less than nine months after Parliament allowed those with Canadian ancestors to be recognized as Canadian citizens, the backlog of applications has soared to a new high.

More than 136,000 applications for citizenship certificates are now waiting for a decision — many of them from Americans. Those who apply today face an estimated wait of 33 months, according to figures posted on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)'s website.

That is a 32 per cent jump in wait time and an 11 per cent rise in the number of applications since the previous update on Aug. 10.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney's government needs to ensure that IRCC has the resources to address the "growing crisis," pointing out that the government's last budget called for 3,300 positions to be cut by 2028-29.

"It is completely unacceptable that people who have a legitimate claim to Canadian citizenship, passed in legislation by Parliament, are being left in limbo," she said in a statement.

"Families [are] facing enormous disruption to their ability to travel, work, study, access services and plan their lives."

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/billc-3-citizenship-by-descent-9.7337738