Citizenship and Immigration committee  To be very short, I would look toward what we are doing internally here in Canada to help Hong Kongers and others who are currently in Canada who may be at risk of losing their status. Currently, Canada only offers up to a three-year postgraduate work permit program. There is good reason to suggest that, given the current economic circumstances and the uncertain situation in Hong Kong, we might want to extend that to a five-year postgraduate work permit process, similar to the Australian model.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's the 2020 motto. The answer to the first question is yes. For inadmissibility, the potential to be barred from Canada for participating in, let's say, a riot, which another government might call it, is absolutely a concern of the Hong Kong community. Many others in the world [Technical difficulty—Editor] are charged because their government deems their political activity to be in contravention of their laws.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Absolutely. I'm [Technical difficulty—Editor] this year and share my own family's experience. My own father was a refugee resettled [Technical difficulty—Editor] in the 1970s to Canada, and members of our family were able to come to Canada under a similar program. I think this takes a longer-term view of what immigration and refugee status should look like in Canada for Hong Kongers and for others.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It sounds a bit like a broken record here, but I think it is a good question. [Technical difficulty—Editor] international students, again, is the ability to recognize in-country asylum, that source country stream, and to provide exemptions through public policy from current regulations that exist here in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I think we need to understand the circumstances of that protest, especially what we might call “rioting” and we might call—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely, and I would go back to the example of something like a source country measure whereby we are able to recognize somebody's refugee status within their home country to come to Canada. I would say there's actually precedent. The biggest example from recent years was the Rainbow Railroad program, which allowed Canada to resettle LGBTQ individuals from places like Chechnya and Iran to come directly to Canada and find safety here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Not as of yet. So far, they're...early in the coming year. I agree with Ms. Chan that, especially with regard to this situation, clear communication needs to be had with regard to who is eligible and when this program will roll out.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. I wasn't [Technical difficulty—Editor]. I noted when I read the [Technical difficulty—Editor]. While I think the announcement is a first step, it's an insufficient one. With regard to humanitarian intervention, which is really what this is, I can understand the desire of [Technical difficulty—Editor] for highly qualified students.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly, the U.K. has a more robust program, with regard to a special type of [Technical difficulty—Editor] that certain Hong Kongers hold who are able to qualify for Britain. One thing to note, similar to the Canadian program, is that there has been no specific [Technical difficulty—Editor] on behalf of the U.K. government about when they're going to move forward on a lot of these immigration measures.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say, yes, service standards are absolutely vital. Other research around other jurisdictions, various migration agencies and other allies and friends of Canada have shown that service standards do help improve timeliness, but the big thing as well is that there needs to be an upfront investment in staff training and sufficient staff capacity in order to process these claims.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the members of the committee, Ms. Kwan, recommended the revival of the source country system. This is an older refugee resettlement program that would help what we call IDPs, or internally displaced persons, people who are in places like Hong Kong, or let's say there was an [Technical difficulty—Editor] family trapped within Iraq or elsewhere.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you to the committee for inviting me. It's an honour and a pleasure to present with Starus and Alliance Canada Hong Kong. The topic of today actually goes along with Mr. Shory, about the idea of timeliness and flexibility when it comes to the processing of applications for refugee claimants, immigrants and others.