Back in February 2022, I testified in front of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (“CIMM”) where I testified along with other witnesses around the need for an independent ombudsperson for IRCC.
Nearly three years later, we finally receive our first glimpse behind the curtain at how this recommendation was received and processed by IRCC. There were of course many other CIMM reports and other reports and actions that contributed to things. It is also worth noting that this ‘feasibility study’ has never been made public until now. H/T to Andrew Koltun for securing this information via ATIP.
IRCC Ombudsperson Feasibility Study – Draft Report – Pages from 2A-2023-44707 FINAL-3
Feasibility Study PPT – Pages from 2A-2023-44707 FINAL-2
Ombudsperson Feasibility Summary – Pages from 2A-2023-44707 FINAL
I have made a Google Drive folder available for those who cannot access the PDFs.
Above, I have shared several of the work products that have come out from this process, including a draft, a PPT presentation (understood to be internal), and a summarized final report. I think it would be a fair ask to push IRCC on an updated state of affairs, given even this document is about a year(ish) old.
I call it IRCC’s “most introspective and honest look” because it delves into many of the challenges that are often not made public-facing. These includes issues trying to tackle racial bias (both internally and in decision-making – particularly around Anti-African racism concerns), trying to understand how certain processes such as requests for reconsideration are not being taken up as much by applicants, and importantly acknowledgment of the drain immigration has had on ATIP and Federal Court resources (80% and 79% of case loads respectively in 2022).
What are your takeaways from reading these documents? Anything stand out?
