Citizenship and Immigration committee  … submit the student applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Would you like me to speak in English to make things easier for everybody?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Very well, that’s fine.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, would you like me to speak more loudly? Is that better? I’m not sure what’s going on, but I can no longer hear you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Madam Chair. As I was saying, people or young students who come to Canada often receive support from a parent or guardian, who accompanies them. It’s a bit sensitive. I don’t know the average age of the group we’re talking about right now, but, in general, undergraduates are young…

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It’s really about determining which of them are actually party to the fraud and which of them didn’t know the documents were fraudulent. The government should absolutely not neglect to offer mental health support. On the other hand, we don’t know whether or not all these people were aware that they had a fraudulent document.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That’s our position, in fact, and we mentioned it to the minister and in our brief, which will be submitted to your committee. That point will be made. We’re arguing that the College of Immigration Consultants created all these criteria. In addition, the College suggests that anyone working in this field must be an RISIA, which stands for regulated international student immigration advisor, or an immigration consultant.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In fact, all immigrants who decide to come to Canada, but especially students, who are usually the most vulnerable because they are young, experience anxiety when trying to figure out how to get into the system. They feel pressure even before they get here. In my opinion, people who have been through what we’re talking about now can certainly experience trauma, especially those who didn’t know until they got here that the document they had was fraudulent or allegedly fraudulent.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that’s exactly right. I’m sure we all know a young student who arrived here and…

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair and committee members, thank you for the invitation. I will just give you a friendly reminder: I have been before this committee on several occasions, and I am legally blind, so I would appreciate your mentioning things to me by voice. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In answer to this, we have proposed non-regulatory options, and this is why. If you look at the backlog, there are different sections. While refugees are very important, it is not the largest group. Reducing the largest group, the largest number of applications, which is temporary residents, would lead to resources being available for other streams, like permanent residency, including refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The level of access to justice comes into play, which can become much more complex and expensive. Lawyers are required, and generally speaking, their fees are high. I don't know whether establishing an ombudsman's position would be a solution to the lack of openness and transparency about why applications are rejected, or why a particular decision was made, while allowing the opportunity to submit another application.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If that were the case, then an ombudsman might be a solution.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  [Inaudible—Editor] two or three, it depends...