Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I understand. Our argument is that it's going to become much easier for IRB members to make these mistakes, because people are going to be arriving without having disclosed what they need to disclose at the beginning, and we have seen people returned quite literally to their deaths because they have not said in the early parts of their claim that they were gay, or lesbian, or trans, and then this has come up later, and then this creates a credibility problem.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  With all due respect, there has not been a gender analysis done on Bill C-31. Our on-the-ground experience suggests that no, it will not be helpful. Our people will be affected. The Auditor General has identified the source of the backlog as the lack of resourcing of the IRB—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have already seen an increase, without the Balanced Refugee Reform Act being implemented.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've suggested alternative mechanisms in our brief that would address our concerns, and I hope you'll give those some attention.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for this time. It's important to recognize the complexity of homophobic and transphobic persecution that exists in the world today. There is a myriad of countries—right now, 76 hold official criminal sanctions, even when criminal sanctions don't exist. Things such as public health laws, morality laws, and religious laws disproportionately affect transgendered, lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We already have been.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've been impacted because people who are LGBT have been detained and been unable to access legal counsel because of that detention. Our concern is that even though it may be a very small percentage once people are in detention and they are without review for 12 months.... And I understand that it is maybe less than 1%, but that it could happen, and it has happened, that people have been detained and once they are, they do not have access to legal counsel in a safe environment that allows them to say what they need to say.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Bill C-11, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, provided for consultation with human rights groups before a country could be designated. That's one of the measures that's been removed in Bill C-31. So yes, I do see that as one of the problems with the way that the designated country list has been included in Bill C-31.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our brief outlines these in more detail. I'd also refer you to the brief by the Canadian Council for Refugees, as there are great parallels there. Creating a system that protects the most vulnerable—women who are fleeing domestic violence, LGBT refugees—creates a system that works well for all refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wouldn't mind responding to some of the comments that were addressed to Rainbow Refugee. Do we have time?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. We do share the goal of seeing refugee claimants move through their claim much faster than the current system allows. Clearly waiting a year or two in limbo is unacceptable. However, that waiting time was created through inadequate resourcing of the refugee board. You can legislate any timeframe you want; it won't work if the refugee board is not staffed properly and fully.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We see overseas protection as a complement to good inland protection, but not a replacement. Canada has an important role to play in upholding good standards of refugee protection for sexual orientation and gender identity claims. We should continue to pass measures that allow us to maintain those standards.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It clearly violates the constitution and our charter obligations, and there are intentions to move forward with challenges.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's an absolute denial of justice and due process, and it puts Canada at serious risk of returning someone to their death, to persecution. When we signed on to the Geneva Convention, we signed on to be a place of refuge and protection for all refugees and to give them access to due process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's exactly right, yes, very much so. We gave the example of South Africa. We've seen this in Colombia. I've had one gentleman describe Bogotá as a wonderful city in which to be gay, and another had to flee for 10 years and stay in hiding because of death threats. So it is very much a situation that must be determined on a case-by-case basis, and there must be a right to appeal.