Immigration and Settlement

1. The Canadian Immigration Act and the Québec immigration law state that family reunification is a central objective of the Canadian and Québec immigration programs;
2. Canada has signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, all of which affirm the principle of family unity and that the family is entitled to protection by society and the state;
3. The CCR has published an extensive report on family reunification and has passed various resolutions calling for the elimination of barriers to family reunification;
4. The federal government continues to make changes in the Family Class regulations which serve to create further delays and barriers to reunification (i.e.. recent changes announced on March 18, 1997) and the Québec government has tightened the financial requirements for sponsors and has recently implemented a repayment program for defaulting sponsors without regard to their present financial situation;

1. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada has undertaken a consultative process with relevant stakeholders with a view to developing sponsorship programs that will include partnerships and blended roles and responsibilities;
2. In some regions, as of April 1st 1998, the AAP/RAP allocations will be limited to the major urban centres in each region thus excluding the possibility of blended programs in smaller urban centres and rural communities where AAP/RAP will no longer be administered;
3. A significant portion of current and past blended programs such as the Joint Assistance Sponsorship Program, the Women at Risk Program and the Special 3/9 Program for refugees from the former Yugoslavia have been undertaken successfully in smaller urban centres and rural communities;

1. Agencies experienced in providing AAP services are the most knowledgeable as to how to meet client needs;
2. Inclusive, integrated, and related services should not be arbitrarily limited or required (e.g. number of hours, weeks or service) but should be discretionary and based on client need;
3. Services must include, but not be limited to, finding of permanent accommodation and sufficient funding to provide initial temporary accommodation and counselling;

1. The federal government has allocated additional dollars for settlement in various provinces over a three year period;
2. This money has not been spent on settlement services in some provinces;
3. The need to spend significant amounts of settlement funds in a short time period will not facilitate the most effective use of such dollars;

1. Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which guarantees education for children;
2. Education is fundamental to child development;

1. The CCR adopted Resolution 3 in November 1997 concerning changes from AAP to RAP and has not received a satisfactory response;
2. There has been no consultation about the changes to services with the organizations that deliver the services, let alone with the refugees receiving the services;
3. CIC is committed to promoting through its services greater independence in government-assisted refugees;
4. CIC is continuing to impose a quantitative approach (defining the numbers of hours of service to be delivered, and the period within which they are to be delivered);
5. The changes appear to mean, at least in some regions, significant cutbacks in services for government-assisted refugees;
6. In some areas the role of reception centres is being called into question, but without open discussion and consultation;
7. Citizenship and Immigration Canada is developing national standards for services to arriving refugees, again without consultations;

1. The Human Rights Code includes sexual orientation as one of the prohibited grounds for discrimination in Canada;
2. Gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered individuals are as much a part of the immigrant and refugee communities as they are part of every community;
3. Settlement agencies have the responsibility to provide relevant, effective and appropriate services to these further marginalized immigrant and refugee communities;
4. The staff of settlement agencies, as part of a society that has heterosexist privilege, may have internalized a world view that further marginalizes these groups;
5. This will impact negatively on the ability of the sector to provide effective settlement services to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered immigrants and refugees;

There is a need to share information on services for refugee claimants and to explore how the work can be improved and better communication networks established across the country;

1. In many areas immigration policy affects men and women differently;
2. There is no central coordination of gender analysis within the Immigration Department;

1. All Canadian passport holders are equal regardless of country of origin;
2. Canadian passport and travel document holders have suffered violations of their human rights by foreign governments at foreign ports of entry on the basis of their country of origin;