The Federal government has introduced a new bill to the Parliament, to expand the “Flexibility” of selection process over the immigration applications. Critics are worried this bill will enable Diane Finley – Minister of Immigration – to go ahead with the changes without parliamentary – or public – oversight.
Legal experts and immigrant advocates made their reservations known after the Conservative government announced plans to relinquish Parliament’s decision-making power on immigration policies to a single person – the minister.
Finely has been touting Bill 50 – which was introduced this month – as the way to reduce the 800,000 backlogged applications and cut long waiting times for immigration applications. Meanwhile critics, while commending the government's effort to tackle the backlogged files, said they were caught off guard by the secrecy surrounding the new provisions.
The bill would allow the minister to discard applications from specific countries, reject applicants who otherwise meet all immigration criteria, and accelerate some other applications, allowing queue-jumping. To make the matter worst, the rejected applicants couldn't appeal anymore!
Immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman said the approach goes against the points system that was introduced in the late 1960s to make the system non-racist and accountable. Waldman believes this new change will question all of these values by giving the minister the power reject valid cases and having the capability to approve applications be processed despite them not meeting the objective criteria.
The bill could also terminate the processing of humanitarian applications from overseas and limit the number and type of applications each person could file.
Finley, during an interview on CTV denied such conditions and insisted that to speed up the 900,000 applications – which grew from its 50,000 units to current backlog level- there is no other way.
Finley said the changes will help fill jobs that go empty while qualified people wait, as well as provide the option of faster processing for applicants from troubled areas.
The amendment is contained within the 2008 budget implementation bill, which means it would go through if a vote of confidence is issued. This way there is no room for debate of the content among the opposition parties. They have to accept it or bring down the government and face an election.
It's a concern because these changes aren't made without reasons. Someone would have thought it out. What targets do they have in mind? They are not seen in the legislation.
Alex Stojicevic, the chair of the immigration section of the Canadian Bar Association, announced that he has made his case against the proposal and his association, which represents 859 immigration lawyers, will also be calling members of Parliament to discuss the issue at hand and it will issue a press release to outline the position soon.
The NDP say they are preparing an amendment to the budget bill of 2008 that would remove the immigration changes.