Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a brilliant approach, and I think it would be one that I would absolutely support. Again, that kind of goes back to the point that, if you're going to set extraordinary targets, additional resources need to be deployed and provided for that additional stream.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly, in my opinion, it would be prudent.... In any of these extraordinary situations like the Afghani or the Ukrainian crisis, where a response is needed and thought important enough for Parliament to act on, additional resources ought to be provided, absolutely. The problem we've always had is that resources are redeployed from processing existing refugee populations to now process the applications of this newly created target.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's important to have almost a “first in, first out”, a first-come, first-served basis. We have applications that were submitted in 2017-18 and still haven't been processed, so I think first-come, first-served.... As they come in, they ought to be processed, as opposed to the current situation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The U.S., like Canada, relies upon the UNHCR to refer refugees to them. My reading into this is that there is a problem with their referral program. What I would argue, and what I would urge this committee to take back to Parliament, is that a study analysis should be done. Transparency is required at the UNHCR to ensure that they are fairly and adequately representing all the persecuted religious minorities—Christian, Yazidi and Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan—in the GAR programs.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are not a whole lot of data points out there. I think that's purposefully done. One article that I often refer to.... Granted, it's a bit dated, but again, it's a very limited dataset. In 2016, The Wall Street Journal published an article that looked at the 12,800 Syrian refugees who were resettled to the United States under President Obama.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's exactly right. That is what happened during the Syrian refugee crisis. Essentially, in my understanding of what took place during that crisis, in order to meet the 25,000 target, they moved visa officers away from many of the posts and had them go to Lebanon and Jordan to process Syrian applications, which essentially stalled all the other applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. That is our experience and the experience of all SAHs.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. By way of introduction, I want to indicate the Archdiocese of Toronto's participation in the private sponsorship of refugees program. We are the largest sponsorship agreement holder in Canada and have been involved in the PSR program since its very inception.