Partisan Conservative appointments are abuse of immigration system

OTTAWA – New Democrat Immigration Critic Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) has long charged the Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney of neglecting the refugees file.

Those charges are now confirmed by a recently published Public Service Commission audit.
The audit found that more than half of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) appointments were not made based on merit or guiding values of fairness, transparency, access, and representativeness.

Approximately 61 % or 33 out of 54 appointments were not made based on merit, or failed to follow guiding values or both. More than half of the appointments were made based on partisan considerations, and preferential treatment was given. The Conservatives broke the refugee determination system by appointing unqualified party cronies.

“Instead of bringing in new legislation, Jason Kenney should clean up the chaos created by his government.” said Chow. “The refugee backlog is a result of three things: funding cuts from 2006 to 2009 which means the IRB had to work with $4 million less; the second is the lack of decision makers; and third is partisan appointments”.

Canada has seen a 26% drop in the refugee acceptance rate from 2000 to 2008. In 2008, there were 21, 860 refugees accepted, the lowest number in ten years. Canada is showing less compassion, closing the door on refugees while at the same time dramatically increasing the number of temporary foreign workers to 364,000 in 2008.

"Our nation was built by boat loads of refugees from Ireland fleeing the potato famine, and many other waves of refugees and immigrants. Now under the Conservative government, refugees seeking shelter from war-torn countries, or fleeing violence and hunger, are called queue jumpers. Migrants are being used as economic units and then booted out. This twisted and mean-spirited approach is shameful," said Chow.