Liberals playing partisan games with our immigration system$1:
The federal Liberals are making a complete hash of Canada’s immigration system because they take neither our citizenship nor our national security seriously.
Take for instance what is being called an “appalling” shortage of immigration appeal judges – adjudicators who hear the cases of immigrants whose applications to stay in Canada have been rejected. Some have criminal records, committed fraud on their application forms or are suspected of terrorist links.
Unlike federal court judges who are appointed until age 75, Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) judges are appointed for three-year terms. To keep the reappointment process from turning into a partisan, patronage sham, sitting immigration judges used to appear before a professional committee operating at arm’s length from the federal cabinet. They would be renewed if they had demonstrated “good behaviour” while in office.
However, when the Trudeau Liberals came to power in late 2015, they changed the process. In the name of “merit” and “transparency,” sitting judges now have to be interviewed by a four-person panel including the IRB chair (no problem there), one of the Immigration minister’s staff, a staffer from the prime minister’s office and a staffer from the privy council office.
Since November 2015, no judge appointed by the former Harper government has been reappointed for more than a year. And none have been renewed beyond that.
Oh, yes. That’s really taking the politics out of the process. That’s putting the law and security ahead of partisan Liberal priorities.
Imagine what it does to judicial independence to have to appear before a panel of Liberal hacks every three years to justify your continued employment.
But there is another problem that has resulted from the Trudeau Liberals putting politics first.
There is now what many lawyers who represent clients at IRB appeals hearings are calling an “appalling” lack of judges. Apparently even though the Trudeau government is keen to fill these panels with loyal Grits, they are having trouble finding enough think-alike sycophants to award these prizes.
Toronto has the greatest number of vacancies (20), but the problem may be the most acute in Western Canada. Nine judges from Vancouver cover not only B.C., but also travel to other major western cities to hear appeals. Meanwhile, the board has two full-time judges in Calgary, too – in theory.
Because the Liberals refuse to consider merit in reappointment – because they refuse to renew the term of any judge appointed by the Harper Tories, period – within the next two weeks there will be eight vacancies (out of 9 positions) in Vancouver and one vacancy (out of 2) in Calgary.
It’s already hard enough to be heard in Vancouver, for instance, where the wait time for an appeal is often 18 months. But in cities such as Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg, where judges visit only a few of weeks a year, the waits can be up to four years.
To add to the chaos, the lone remaining judges in Vancouver and Calgary will be brand new. In the past, judges took up to a full year to train and mentor under existing judges. Their first cases would be heard as part of three-judge panels until they were ready to go solo.
Now, thanks to Liberal political meddling, the West will be nine judges short out of 11 and the two remaining judges will be raw rookies with no senior judges to advise them.
This is bad for immigrants because many will now be in appeal limbo for years unable to bring family members to join them. But it is also bad for Canada since immigrants who have been ordered deported will get to stay, including drug lords, fraudsters, and perhaps even murderers and terrorists...
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/06/10/li ... ion-system