Associate Assistant Deputy Minister

Speaking Notes

for

Catrina Tapley

Associate Assistant Deputy Minister

Strategic and Program Policy Sector

Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada

On the Occasion of the Review of Canada’s 19th/20th Reports on the International Convention on the

Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination

Geneva, Switzerland

February 22, 2012

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Mr. Chair and members of the Committee, we appear on behalf of Canada to report on certain matters relating to Canada’s Nineteenth and Twentieth Report under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

My name is Catrina Tapley and I am Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic and Program Policy at the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which has responsibility for the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and the Citizenship Act.

I am joined today by colleagues from various federal government departments, including:

·  From Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, Ms. Elizabeth Tromp, Assistant Deputy Minister;

·  From Justice Canada’s Human Rights Law Section, Mr. Stephen Zaluski, Deputy Director General and General Counsel, and Ms. Élène Bérubé, Counsel;

·  From Public Safety Canada, Mr. Glen Linder, Director of International Affairs;

·  From the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva Ms. Esther Van Nes, First Secretary – Legal Affairs;

·  From Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ms. Klara Steele, Deputy Director of Multiculturalism Policy;

·  From the Department of Canadian Heritage, Ms. Liane Venasse, Manager of the Human Rights Program; and

·  We are also pleased to have Ms. Karen McCarthy from the Ministère des relations internationals, representing the province of Québec.

In addition, I would like to acknowledge Ambassador Elissa Golberg, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Canada to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, who is also here with us.

While not all provinces and territories are present today, we have consulted them in preparing for this appearance and continue to work closely with them with respect to Canadian laws relating to matters addressed in the Convention.

This presentation will highlight a few of the efforts documented in our report, as well as providing the Committee with further information on Canada’s efforts to reduce incidents of racially-motivated crime, to prevent racial discrimination from becoming the deep and systemic problem in our country that it is elsewhere, and to ensure that our peacefully pluralist society remains so.

A Diverse Society

As this Committee is well aware, Canada is a multicultural society. Our residents now claim more than 200 ethnic origins.

In our 2006 national Census, over 1.1 million people identified themselves as an Aboriginal person (North American Indian, Métis, or Inuit).

Over five million people – 16.2% of the population – identified themselves as members of a racial minority group. The three largest groups, representing almost two thirds of the visible minority population of Canada, are South Asians, Chinese, and Africans.

We anticipate that the process of demographic change will only accelerate in the years ahead. Canada is also becoming a more religiously diverse society, though the overwhelming majority of Canadians still report being Christians, with Roman Catholicism as the largest denomination.

Population projections indicate that by 2031:

·  Close to one-third of Canadians will be a member of a racial minority group, and this proportion could be almost two in three for the major cities of Toronto and Vancouver;

·  Between 25-28% of the population will be born outside the country;

·  Non-Christian religious communities will represent about 14% of the total population, more than double from just ten years ago.

Legal Framework

The Canadian Constitution guarantees all Canadians the right to equal protection and benefit of the law without unjust discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, and other enumerated grounds.

There are also statutory protections, including the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Multiculturalism Act and the Employment Equity Act, which provide protection against invidious racial discrimination.

As a federal state, Canada implements its obligations under the Convention through a wide range of legislation, policies, programs and services at the federal and provincial/territorial levels.

Canada takes a co-operative approach to the implementation of its international human rights obligations, whereby federal, provincial and territorial governments consult and exchange information and best practices. This allows a variety of perspectives to be brought to bear, producing a diverse range of innovative and locally-appropriate ideas for the protection and promotion of human rights in Canada.

Policies and programs

I would now like to outline some of Canada’s key measures to address racial discrimination, as they relate to the themes the Committee has outlined for our discussion.

Immigration

Canada has long been a destination of choice for immigrants. We are among the world’s major immigrant-receiving countries and have one of the highest per capita rates of permanent immigration in the world – roughly 0.8 percent in recent years.

Canada welcomes approximately 250,000 permanent residents and more than 200,000 temporary foreign workers and international students each year.

Refugee Protection

The Committee has also expressed interest in Canada’s approach to refugee protection.

Canada has a proud tradition of being a place of refuge, and has a long history with refugees. In the 18th Century, Upper and Lower Canada’s populations were augmented by a flood of refugees loyal to the Crown fleeing persecution in the American Revolution. Later, in the 19th Century, escaped slaves travelled north on the underground railroad to freedom under the British flag. More recently, in the 20th Century, Hungarian and Vietnamese refugees fled communist oppression to make new homes in Canada.

The refugee experience is central to Canada’s history. Many refugees come to Canada with experience of living in a society that denies them fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Their experience of life under tyranny and repression reminds Canadians, who may sometimes take their own freedom for granted, to appreciate the liberty we have and to work constantly to preserve it.

Internationally, the Government of Canada takes its obligations to protect people at risk of persecution, including displaced populations, very seriously. In this context, Canada has been outspoken in its denunciation of regimes that violate the fundamental freedoms of their people, including through laws that discriminate overtly on the basis of race and ethnicity, or through blasphemy laws that disproportionately target ethnic and religious minorities and women.

While our asylum system is world-renowned for its high standard of fairness and generosity, it is currently challenged by long wait times for decisions, a significant backlog of claimants, a lengthy and complex post-claim process, and slow removals.

In 2010, the Government introduced the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, which will address the challenges and improve the efficiency of the system by streamlining the processing and removal of unfounded claimants who take advantage of Canada’s generosity and abuse our asylum system, while ensuring that all claimants continue to have access to a fair hearing of their claim.

At the same time the Government committed to increase the number of resettled refugees by 2,500 persons. By 2013, Canada will welcome up to 14,500 refugees through its resettlement program, and resettle approximately 1 in 10 refugees resettled worldwide. This will further reinforce Canada’s place as the most generous country for resettlement in the world.

Our goal is a fair and efficient asylum system, which protects those in need, discourages abuse of the system by illegal migrants and economic migrants pretending to be refugees, and upholds Canada’s long humanitarian tradition.

In 2011, Canada took the decision to review and strengthen the 2010 reforms. The proposed legislative changes which Minister Kenney introduced last week represent two key protection goals:

·  It will further strengthen the integrity of Canada’s asylum system; and

·  It aims to address concerns posed by contemporary human smuggling realities.

It will also provide for the legislative authority for collection of biometric data on non-citizens.

There is growing concern about migrant smuggling generally, including its potential to undermine state sovereignty and overwhelm protection institutions, to circumvent domestic laws and processes, and especially its cost in human lives each year.

To address these realities, recent legislative efforts aim to provide immigration officials with better tools to properly determine the identity and admissibility of individuals who arrive in the context of “irregular arrivals,” which can be the case with dangerous and illegal human smuggling operations.

We will also be strengthening the authority to detain illegal or irregular migrants until we can determine whether or not they are legitimate refugees. This fulfils our duty to the Canadian people to protect them from violent foreign criminals, terrorists and to prevent the exploitation of our generous social services, while still providing a safe and secure refuge for those fleeing real persecution.

The forthcoming changes to Canada’s asylum system and our anti-smuggling efforts, combined with a strengthened commitment to refugee resettlement, are necessary to ensure that protection continues to be provided to those who need it, while at the same time ensuring Canada’s programs and Canadian communities are protected from those who do not.

Settlement

Canada is a leader in integrating newcomers into Canadian society, which includes providing a generous range of rights as well as ensuring that newcomers understand the responsibilities that come with living in Canada. We are proud that approximately 85% of immigrants eventually become Canadian citizens.

Canadians warmly welcome and accept new Canadians. We welcome the varied traditions that new Canadians bring to our country, but we also insist that new Canadians, like all Canadians, respect our core Canadian values.

As our new citizenship guide, Discover Canada, explains:

“Canadian citizens have rights and responsibilities. These come to us from our history, are secured by Canadian law, and reflect our shared traditions, identity, and values.

But “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, “honour killings,” female genital mutilation, forced marriage or other gender-based violence.”

Canada understands that there will be a process of adjustment for both new Canadians and the society that welcomes them, but we would note that the overwhelming majority of new Canadians acknowledge that the primary responsibility for adjustment must lie with the newcomer who wishes to join Canadian society.

To help this process, in addition to a managed immigration program, Canada provides $900 million annually for settlement services to help immigrants and refugees fulfill their desire to participate fully in Canadian society.

Through these settlement services, we offer needs assessments, orientation services, language learning, employment-related services and labour market preparation, and initiatives that foster welcoming communities.

Some successful initiatives include:

·  The Settlement Workers in School Program, which reaches out to newcomer families and provides them with settlement information and referrals to education and community resources.

·  Local Immigration Partnerships, which involve municipal, provincial, and federal partners in a locally-driven process to plan around the needs of newcomers.

In keeping with our peacefully pluralist heritage, the Government of Canada also funds initiatives that foster intercultural and interfaith understanding, promote active citizenship, and instil civic memory and pride.

In addition, the Government provides significant contributions to and works in partnership with a number of key organizations to help prevent unjust discrimination:

·  The Canadian Race Relations Foundation is a national centre of expertise and an active promoter of anti-racism issues in Canada. In 2011, the Foundation created a nationwide interfaith network that will serve as a forum for promoting inter-religious discussion.

·  In 2006, inspired by Canada’s approach to pluralism, His Highness, the Aga Khan, in partnership with Canada, co-founded the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa. In September 2011, Mr. John McNee, Canada’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, was appointed as the Centre’s inaugural Secretary-General, positioning the Centre to increase its international promotion of peaceful pluralism as a solution for increasingly multi-ethnic societies.

·  And, finally, I am proud to state that Canada will take a leadership role in furthering Holocaust education and combating anti-Semitism when it assumes the Chair in 2013 of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust education, remembrance and research. The Task Force is comprised of some 31 member states.

Employment

Canada continues to work to ensure that newcomers and all Canadians have an equal opportunity to exercise their fundamental rights.

It has been estimated that, within a few years, all of Canada’s labour market growth will be attributable to immigration rather than natural growth in our population.

Yet we are aware that the economic performance of immigrants is not on par with that of the Canadian-born population.

Recognizing these challenges, the government of Canada has made foreign credential recognition a policy priority.

As this Committee has noted, foreign credential recognition is critical to the success of immigrants, whose economic integration is key to social integration. We believe that addressing this challenge is vital for the strength of the Canadian economy. As such, we are working with other levels of government and licensing bodies to reduce barriers to employment through:

·  The Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications, which aims to ensure that applicants’ skills and credentials are recognized in a fair, consistent, transparent, and timely manner;

·  Labour market mobility measures, so accredited workers can work anywhere in Canada; and

·  The provision of accessible and timely labour market information to newcomers, both pre-arrival and once in Canada.

The Government of Canada contributes $25 million annually to this issue and invested an additional $50 million over two years through Canada’s Economic Action Plan to enhance Foreign Credential Recognition.

Furthermore, Canada has introduced a pilot-project of micro-loans to help internationally-trained individuals cover tuition and other training costs associated with bringing their skills up to a level that will be recognized in Canada.

In the workplace, the federal Employment Equity Act is designed to remove barriers to the employment and upward mobility facing four designated groups: women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities. Combined, these groups are a majority – at least 60% – of the Canadian workforce.