Information
| Published date | 01 January 1978 |
| Date | 01 January 1978 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1978.tb00961.x |
In
formation
Excerpts
from
an
address by the Honourable
Bud
Cullen Minister
of
Employment and
Immigration Canada to the National Inter-Faith Immigration Committee,
Toronto, April
21,19
78
. . .
As you are well aware, the
new Immigration Act
and Regulations came into effect
on April loth, and as a result, Canada now has one af the most modern,comprehensive
and humane pieces of immigration legislation in the world.
This
legislation, which grew
out of an unprecedented dialogue involving a wide range of interested organizations
and individuals, provides us with a flexible and responsive tool for shaping the immi-
gration movement.
.
.
.
.
.
Although no law can offer a complete solution
to
the
problem of refugee settle-
ment,
our new Act offers Canadians the opportunity to continue to show concern and
do their share.
Canada has an enviable record. In the belief that people should not be persecuted
for their political or religious convictions, we have welcomed more than
350,000
ref-
ugees since
1947,
and specific provisions are contained in our new law to ensure that
this tradition is continued. Let us consider for a moment how the new Act helps
refugees
.
To begin with, the Act confirms Canada’s obligations under the United Nations
Convention to protect refugees within our border, by ensuring that those legally in
Canada will not be deported unless they pose a grave threat to national security or
public order.
This means that unless refugees are a danger to Canada’s security, or have been
convicted of a serious crime, they cannot be sent to a country where their lives
of
free-
dom would be endangered because
of
their racial, religious, national political, or group
membership affiliations.
The new Act outlines the step-by-step procedures that must be followed when
a
visitor to this country puts forward a claim to refugee status and protects people in
this
situation from removal while their claims are being evaluated. The details of ref-
ugee claims are provided at an interview with a specially trained senior immigration
officer.
At this interview the claimant has a right to counsel and may call witnesses and sub-
mit supporting documentation. The transcript of the interview is then forwarded to
Ottawa for study by the newlyestablished Refugee Status Advisory Committie.
This new refugee committee differs from its predecessor in a number of important
ways. While the old committee was staffed exclusively by public servants, the new
committee will include three public servants and an equal number of non-government
members.
29
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