THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
May 21, 2010 | 17
New refugee
law’s time
constraints
alarm CBA
DONALEE MOULTON
The Canadian Bar Association is giving a thumb up — and
two thumbs down—to Bill
C- 11, the Balanced Refugee
Reform Act. Immigration lawyers are equally concerned that
the new legislation will hamper
their efforts to help clients.
“We commend the government for trying to improve the
speed of the determination and
for introducing the appeal provision,” Stephen Green, chair of
the CBA’s National Citizenship
and Immigration Law Section,
said in an interview.
“The average length of deter-
mination is 18 months,” he
noted. “That is too long to put
someone’s life on hold.”
The CBA is also applauding
the implementation of an
appeal for refugees — through a
newly created Refugee Appeal
Division (RAD). “At the present
time, life and death decisions
are being made by a single deci-
sion-maker,” Green said. “Refu-
gees would now have access to
an appeal based on the merits
of the case.”
However, he added, there
are significant concerns with
the proposed process. “There
are a lot of limits on who has
that right of appeal, who can
appear, and if it is an oral hear-
ing. The RAD is a great idea,
but is it really an appeal?”
Dr. Obiora Okafor, a professor
at Osgoode Hall Law School in
Toronto, pointed out the new pro-
cess is not even necessary. “Under
the current legislation, there
should be an appeal to a Refugee
Appeal Division staffed by order-
in-council appointees. But the
government has refused to imple-
ment it and has instead chosen to
make the current first instance
process the appeal and have civil
servants, who are less independ-
ent, determine status,” he noted.
a senior partner with
Green and Spiegel in Toronto.
Poultry debacle
leaves border
agents looking
like turkeys
“
The strict timelines may create a challenge for
claimants seeking to find relevant counsel. It
places tremendous pressure on lawyers and their
clients to meet unrealistic deadlines...
Matthew Jeffery, an immigration lawyer in Toronto.
Indeed, said Okafor, “the
whole ‘safe country’ designa-
tion power to be invested in the
minister is highly fraught. Even
a democracy cannot be safe for
all its citizens in every respect
all of the time.”
In an open letter to Jason
Kenney, minister for citizenship,
immigration and multicultural-
ism, the Canadian Council for
requires determination of indi-
vidual claims, based on all the
facts and the law, by an expert,
independent body.”
The government is con-
vinced that an effective refugee
system is also a fast one. But
the CBA is worried efforts to
speed up processing may be
breaking a legal sound barrier
to the detriment of refugees.
“The government wants you to
be seen within eight days. But
Canada Border Services agents
roughed up a “pasty-lipped”
Nigerian man — who paid for his
flight in cash — after he claimed
to be visiting Canada to research
the export of frozen turkeys to
Africa. Now the agents have some
explaining to do — it turns out
Esemuede Henry Idada really
was investigating the frozen tur-
key business.
