Federal promise for refugee reform postponed as options considered

OTTAWA — A federal Liberal election promise to overhaul the way asylum claims are handled has been postponed indefinitely despite increased numbers of people seeking refuge, which put the system at risk, the Canadian Press has learned.

One of the options on the table, multiple sources have told the Canadian Press, is rejigging the historic Immigration and Refugee Board and handing some of its authority to the Immigration Department.

But those advocating for action before backlogs threaten the integrity of the system say they are up against a government which seems to have lost interest in spending more money or political capital to help asylum seekers.

The starting point is the designated country of origin system, which determines how quickly asylum claims are heard based on where they are from — a system that should, in theory, weed out unfounded claims faster.

Internal evaluations have shown that hasn’t quite worked and the system has drawn the ire of refugee advocates for creating a two-tier approach that includes unworkable timelines for hearing cases and their appeals.

The Liberals had been on the cusp of doing away with it, going even farther than their original promise to use an expert panel to determine which countries belonged on that list.

But a planned January rollout was postponed after the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and the subsequent Liberal cabinet shuffle that brought a new immigration minister.

Then in March, as the issue of illegal border crossers dominated headlines and question period, plans to repeal the country-of-origin scheme were scrapped again, sources said.

They haven’t been rescheduled, even as the IRB itself has joined those saying the system needs to go.

“It would simplify our life, from a casemanagement point of view,” chairman Mario Dion said in an interview in March.

When the Liberals came to power and moved to fulfil a promise to resettle 25,000 Syrians, the government believed it had broad public support for refugees, said immigration lawyer and refugee advocate Lorne Waldman. Things have changed. “The concern at the centre is that support has dissipated significantly because of a series of factors, the most important one being the emergence of Donald Trump,” he said.

“And I think the concern is amplified by the Conservative leadership race, where you have many of the candidates taking a very anti-immigrant posturing in their campaign.”

A spokesman for the prime minister’s office said the overhaul to the country-oforigins policy was simply rescheduled by the department.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan pressed the government Monday on the delays, saying a growing backlog puts the integrity of the asylum system at risk.

“Is the government blind to this or are they just happy to break yet another promise?”

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said the government continues to consult stakeholders and the IRB.

The IRB was established in 1989 because of a Supreme Court ruling saying refuge claimants required an oral hearing, leading the government to establish the arms-length, quasi-judicial tribunal.