For Immediate Release
July 10, 2007

New IRB Selection Process: More Conservative Cronyism

MISSISSAUGA - The government's announcement of a new appointment process for the Immigration and Refugee Board opens the door to Conservative cronyism and political interference, Liberal Immigration Critic Omar Alghabra said today.

"Immigration Minister Diane Finley is pitching this announcement as strengthening the merit-based focus of IRB appointees while increasing transparency and fairness - but the reality is that it does the complete opposite," said Mr. Alghabra.

A new Selection Advisory Board (SAB), replacing the independent IRB Advisory Panel, will give the Minister of Immigration the authority to jointly appoint three of the seven IRB members. In addition, the move to a pass or fail mark in the written exam is a blatant attempt to push through under-qualified political appointees who can barely pass the exam, said Mr. Alghabra.

The government initiated the change based on recommendations made last year. Those recommendations prompted widespread criticism and the resignation of IRB chairman Jean-Guy Fleury and the entire IRB Advisory Panel.

"Mr. Fleury, who helped reform the IRB appointment system with the previous Liberal government, told the Citizenship and Immigration Committee this spring that the Minister's plan to appoint half of the members of an independent advisory body leaves the board open to political influence," Mr. Alghabra said.

The committee, after hearing the same thing from other witnesses, passed a motion on May 10, 2007, that explicitly called on the government to reject this process and immediately fill the numerous IRB vacancies to help reduce the growing backlog of individuals awaiting case review hearings.

"In true Conservative fashion, they chose to ignore everyone else and push ahead with their partisan agenda. They deliberately allowed the vacancies on the 156-member board - which have grown from five under the previous Liberal government to 60 - to rack up so they could appoint their cronies once they implemented this new process," said Mr. Alghabra.

"Canada's refugee system is in crisis, with about 28,000 cases pending, and yet, rather than filling the vacancies promptly, the Conservative government waited until Parliament recessed to quietly make this controversial announcement - they know it can only be viewed as a regressive step back to the days of patronage."

Mr. Alghabra concluded that Canadians should be very concerned about the politicization of this process, since the right-wing Harper Conservatives - who mostly come from the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties - have a history of being unwelcoming towards refugees and immigrants.

"Far from being independent, more adjudicators will now share that socially conservative ideology on refugees," he said.