RESIDENCY
A Senate report clears all but three senators over questions about expense claims.
OTTAWA — As the federal government seeks a new boss for the Immigration and Refugee Board, one former chairman is raising concerns about the potential for bias.
The job, which pays as much as $266,000 a year, is a cabinet appointment and Peter Showler argues that opens the door to patronage since there’s no mechanism to ensure transparency or accountability. More importantly, he said, it means the government could select somebody who ultimately shares its perspective on refugees.
“There’s been no government as outspoken about the merits of refugee issues as this government,” he said, adding Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has repeatedly expressed his frustrations about so-called “bogus refugees” from Hungary and Mexico. The Conservatives, Showler has argued, have generally been less receptive to asylum claims made in Canada.
“If the government is that outspoken about the merits of particular claims from particular countries, my concern ... is that they will appoint someone who views refugee issues in the same way.”
It’s a problem, said the adjunct professor and director of the Refugee Forum at the University of Ottawa, since the IRB is supposed to be an arm’s-length, quasi-judicial tribunal that bases its decisions on the law and the evidence presented, not public policy.
Neutrality, he added, is particularly important right now given the launch in December of the new Refugee Appeal Division. He suggested members will be called upon to “shape a jurisprudence for the board” and that “the chair will have considerable authority in managing that process.”
Kenney has argued his government has “respected (the IRB’s) role as an independent quasi-judicial organization,” unlike the Liberals who used it as a “partisan dumping ground” for “failed campaign managers” and the spouses of MPs and Senators.