Recent Publications: Refugee Rights

By Rose Dekker on July 21, 2017

Imagine that you are a member of a church that was so moved by the refugee crisis in Syria that you decided to sponsor a Syrian family. Imagine further that the family you sponsored was not among the first 25,000 to come to Canada after the Liberal government won a majority mandate, and that family ended up waiting four or six months to arrive in Canada rather than the mere days or weeks of the earlier families.

It doesn’t take much imagination because this is what happened after February 2016. 

June 2017

Read the Letter

Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) joins the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) to call on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, to increase legal aid funding for refugee claimants and migrants. In a letter addressed to the Minister, CPJ noted that recently proposed cuts to legal aid funding by the provinces will reduce refugee claimants’ access to legal counsel, especially when such claimants cannot afford to hire a lawyer.  

Imagine that you are a member of a church that was so moved by the refugee crisis in Syria that you decided to sponsor a Syrian family. Imagine further that the family you sponsored was not among the first 25,000 to come to Canada after the Liberal government won a majority mandate, and that family…

By Asha Kerr-Wilson and Bolu Coker

When we think of the Syrian refugee crisis, political unrest and terrorism immediately come to mind. Very rarely do we ever think of climate change and poverty as casual factors in this crisis, or in our current global refugee situation. It’s not an obvious connection many of us have made.  A closer look at these links is necessary to ensure we can address the ever-evolving conflict situations of our times.

The problem of long processing times for refugees to Canada will be fixed by 2019, promises Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen. A survey by Christian think tank Citizens For Public Justice reveals that 97 per cent of the agencies who bring privately-sponsored refugees to Canada are concerned about processing times.

Do you think Canada has done what it should to assist refugees? “Definitely not yet,” seems to be the reply of people directly involved in the private sponsorship of refugees across this country. A review of the perspectives of Sponsorship Agreement Holders, or SAHs, was carried out by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) and released in mid-April. (SAHs are…

When Janet’s Ottawa-based sponsoring group decided to sponsor a Syrian family in 2015, they expected a swift resettlement process. “At the time, there was a lot of momentum and enthusiasm”, she said, as many of the group’s members were keen on supporting Syrian refugees at the cusp of the crisis in 2015. Now, however, it…

Des délais interminables et qui continuent de s’allonger, une priorité donnée aux réfugiés syriens que certains trouvent injuste… Un nouveau rapport met le doigt sur les lacunes du programme canadien de parrainage privé, d’après un sondage réalisé auprès des parrains, qu’ils soient des organismes communautaires, des églises ou des groupes de cinq.

The federal government needs to allocate more resources to reduce wait times for privately sponsored refugees, especially those coming from places other than Syria, a new survey says. The report was commissioned by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ), an Ottawa-based Christian charity that tries to influence public policy debates on a number of issues, including…

Many Canadians now know what it means to sponsor refugees, thanks to Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program (PSRP). The opportunity for civil participation in refugee resettlement is a core part of Canada’s overall refugee policy. Canadians, mostly in small groups, supported the PSRP overwhelmingly in 2015. Private sponsorship involves Canadian residents financially and emotionally…