Embassy Magazine – July 13, 2011 Anca Gurzu By the time Canada’s reformed refugee legislation kicks in next year, tens of thousands of refugee claimants will still be waiting for a hearing—and the Immigration and Refugee Board says it won’t have the resources to deal with these leftover files. Experts say this development counters the purpose of streamlining the new system and may also undermine its effectiveness. They worry genuine refugees will be placed in an indefinite and unbearable wait, while unfounded claimants will continue to exploit their stay longer. The IRB’s report on plans and priorities for 2011-2012, released in June, highlights several transformative steps officials will take to accommodate the changes of the new reform legislation, which Parliament passed in June 2010 in an attempt to make Canada’s refugee system faster and more efficient. Among other things, the IRB will add another body to its structure, the Refugee…

Embassy Magazine May 25, 2011 Anca Gurzu In the days after the May 2 federal election, the buzz around Jason Kenney was that the man credited with securing the Conservatives’ new majority government would receive a huge promotion. Some had even touted him as Canada’s next foreign affairs minister. But on May 18, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Mr. Kenney would remain minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism. While this may have prompted disappointment, experts say the energetic and sometimes controversial Mr. Kenney is the right person to keep the increasingly important immigration portfolio high on the government agenda. Active minister For the past five years, Mr. Kenney’s primary mission was to capture traditionally-Liberal voters from key diaspora communities across the country. This effort continued even after he was appointed immigration minister in October 2008. Details of Mr. Kenney’s strategy became a big point of controversy when NDP MP…

Embassy Magazine – March 30, 2011 Anca Gurzu The government has released much awaited criteria for designating which countries will be considered “safe,” meaning asylum seekers coming from them will be processed faster. While experts have generally welcomed the regulations, there are worries the process could become politicized as the immigration minister has a fair degree of latitude while the guidelines themselves are considered fairly limited. The “designated countries of origin” provision is a key and controversial aspect of the reformed refugee legislation, whose purpose is to deter unfounded claims. It allows the immigration minister to create a list of countries from which Canada is receiving large influx of refugee claims, but which are also considered to have sound human rights records. Nationals from those countries arriving at Canada’s borders will go through an expedited assessment process, which includes less time to file an appeal. The minister can start assessing…

Embassy Magazine – September 1, 2010 Anca Gurzu While new rules to shield foreign workers from exploitation are welcome, immigration lawyers worry that a plan to publicly “blacklist” allegedly dishonest employers lacks details and could lead to lawsuits. There are also concerns that introducing an expiration date on working permits will unfairly impact low-skilled workers. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the new measures two weeks ago, and they will come into effect in April. The changes were prompted by increasing concerns and complaints over the exploitation of foreign workers, especially live-in caregivers. There were no previous measures in the regulations that could hold employers accountable for their treatment of foreign employees. Under the new rules, which were published in the Canada Gazette, the government’s official publication, employers who are “found to have provided wages, working conditions or an occupation that was not substantially the same as what was offered” in…

Embassy Magazine – March 10, 2010 By Anca Gurzu Last June, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney publicly questioned the legitimacy of refugee claims made by Roma coming from the Czech Republic, saying they faced no real risk of state persecution. Only a few weeks earlier, Mr. Kenney had described asylum claims by US war deserters as “bogus,” and accused Mexican refugee claimants of systematically abusing the Canadian refugee system. The next month, the Canadian government imposed visa restrictions on visitors from both the Czech Republic and Mexico. Mr. Kenney’s comments-which recently saw him target several post-Olympic refugee claimants have illicited strong criticisms from experts and refugee advocates. But now a Toronto-based lawyer has asked a Federal Court to rule on whether the minister, by making the statements, has interfered in the Immigration and Refugee Board’s independence. Refugee lawyer Max Bergercompared the acceptance rates of Czech refugee claimants throughout the four quarters…