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Showing posts from March, 2022

A mother's fight for facts about her daughter's death could rewrite the Access to Information Act

Federal information commissioner says case exposed 'shortcomings’. Read more at  https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/access-to-information-daughter-death-rcmp-1.6385520

More people seeking judicial intervention with immigration applications

More people seeking judicial intervention with immigration applications. Read more at  https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/more-people-seeking-judicial-intervention-with-immigration-applications/article_475e442c-47c7-51ae-b63a-4fa8900dbebc.html

Racism plays a role in immigration decisions

‘Racism plays a role in immigration decisions,’ House Immigration Committee hears Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said racism is a 'sickness in our society,' and said there is 'zero tolerance for racism, discrimination, or harassment of any kind,' but acknowledged those problems do exist within the department.  Read more at  https://www.newcanadianmedia.ca/racism-bias-plaguing-canadas-immigration-processing-system/

A brief review of the impact Canada’s current immigration backlog is having on Canadian immigration

The IRCC backlog has impacted other areas of government as well. The Access to Information and Privacy Office has received a massive influx of requests made under the  Access to Information  Act  (“ the ATI Act “).  The ATI Act  grants Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or any other person/entity in Canada the right to access government records. These requests are used by immigration applicants to obtain notes taken by Immigration officer who have reviewed their current and past immigration applications. Many applicants affected by the current backlog have criticized the lack of transparency and communication from IRCC on their files. A report from the Information Commissioner of Canada highlighted that in the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year,  there were  116, 928  access to information requests directed at IRCC, a 42% increase from the previous year . With the mounting uncertainty, many applicants have been making requests, which have caused longer wait times and in some cases receipt o