Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM)

The committee continued its study of how to best improve the integrity of the Canadian immigration system.

On Tuesday (March 13^th), Minister Kenney made an appearance at the committee to thank the members for their study of how to eliminate the current backlog of applications in the immigration system and to outline his department’s focus for the upcoming fiscal year including the introduction of biometrics in processing all visa applications, the need to prevent inadmissible individuals from entering Canada, and most importantly, the need for Canada to find talented individuals who will be able to integrate into the labour market to offset the shortage created by our aging population.

On Thursday (March 15^th), the committee heard testimony from health experts on the potential risks immigrants pose to public health in Canada and whether the medical screening currently required by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration are meeting the intended objectives. The committee then heard testimony from the World Sikh Organization of Canada on the problematic admission of war criminals into Canada due to international political and diplomatic pressures as well as the importance of avoiding racial and religious profiling in Canada’s new security measures. Lastly, the committee heard testimony from the Centre of Excellence in Security, Resilience, and Intelligence on the need to build a robust intelligence framework to support the use of biometrics and Canada’s current vulnerabilities in our weak domain/situational awareness.

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