So thank you very much. Today Diversity Magazine sits down with Ahmed Hussen, Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship for the Government of Canada.
Diversity Magazine: I understand, you are part of the Liberal Party of Canada?
Minister Hussen: Yes.
Diversity Magazine: Thank you for talking to Diversity Magazine. So we’re happy to ask you a couple of questions. But the first one would be for you to have the chance to share what your government has accomplished in the last four years.
Minister Hussen: We’ve done a lot. I mean, I don’t think we can cover everything in this program. There’s so much to talk about. But I think the most important one is really delivering on our promise to help the middle class working families and those who are struggling to join the middle class. We have cut taxes for working families with introduced to Canada child benefit, which has resulted in 9 out of 10 families having more money in their pocket, 300,000 children have been removed on poverty. We have one of the lowest poverty rates in Canadian history, we have 825,000 Canadians lifted out of poverty, we have over a million jobs created by Canadians. Since we got into office, we have the lowest unemployment rate in Canadian history. We investing a huge amount of money in infrastructure in transit, in housing $55 billion in a National Housing strategy $25 billion for transit across Canada, hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending to make sure that our infrastructure is up to date, and that we can stimulate the economy. We’ve done a lot we’ve been there for seniors, we’ve kept our promise, lower the age of eligibility from 67. Back to 65. for eligibility for CPP for seniors, we’ve increased the GIC and the OS by 10%. So more seniors have more money in their pocket, there’s a reduction of poverty in seniors, more young people have jobs because of the Canada summer jobs program. So we’ve done a lot in terms of immigration, we have delivered responsible growth in our immigration numbers, highly skilled people are choosing to come to Canada more than ever before. We have increased the Provincial Nominee Program, we’ve introduced new programs like the global skills strategy, which is making Canada and one of the top countries for attracting talent, to our country to help grow. So we’ve done a lot. And we know that there’s more work to be done. There’s more people willing to be included in our economy. There are people who need help. And so we want to continue this momentum that we have, so that we can continue the work that we do.
Diversity Magazine: So as a immigration minister, I want you to clear this myth because there is a myth that those who have already applied for asylum in the US will not be granted asylum in Canada. Is that a true situation?
Minister Hussen: No, sorry, what’s happening is that, first of all, we have an asylum system that is based on the United Nations. It’s based on the conventions that Canada has signed the Geneva Conventions to protect those who are seeking protection. At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN refugee agency recognizes that if you have a robust domestic asylum system, if an asylum seekers access to a decent, reasonable asylum system, that the first asylum system that is able to provide them protection, that should be the place where they should claim asylum. So in other words, if you arrive at the in the UK, and the UK has it as a robust domestic asylum system, and you’re seeking asylum, you should claim asylum in the UK, you should not claim asylum in the UK, then come to Canada and claim asylum. That’s not a reasonable practice. And in fact, the UN refugee agency supports that analysis, they recommend that asylum seekers seeking protection should claim at the first safe country that they land in that is safe.
Diversity Magazine: But US is safe but there are lots of immigration issues in the US with respect to anti immigration policies. Sure, but not least is from Donald Trump, the president of the US at the moment, and this people happen to move to Canada haven’t passed through a safe country like the US. Are you saying that Canada will turn a blind eye…
Minister Hussen: What I’m saying is if you have a refugee claim in the United States, you should wait out to get the results on if you already have a claim in that system. And by the way, the US domestic asylum system has due process. The US domestic violence system enables asylum seekers to present their case, it enables them to have appeals. If they’re not happy with the decision. It gives due process and access to counsel. So the US domestic asylum system meets the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees standards for refugee protection. and due to that, one, when when you have a claim there, you should pursue that claim and not not have two claims in two countries that have robust refugees.
Diversity Magazine: Okay, so now let me move to some issues that everybody has been talking about in our community in the African community in Alberta. And one of it is this gentleman going to be deported on the August 21. That’s up Abdilahi Elmi who’s going to be deported back to Somalia, and he happens to have been born in Somalia came here as a child. He doesn’t speak Somali, he doesn’t know anybody in Somalia, because he didn’t find him proper immigration status, the immigration papers. Now he’s going to be deported back to Somalia. Do you have any comments on that?
Minister Hussen: Well, I would say that, first of all, I I’m sure you’re very much aware of the laws preventing me to discuss details of private immigration case. Right. So that prevents me from getting into details about any immigration case, unless we get a waiver, which I don’t. But having said that, I want to assure you and your viewers that Canada does not deport people without due process, we give people numerous levels of due process and appeals and pre-removal risk assessments, access to the federal court, access to the integration of board. So before someone, before the decision is made for removal, there are multiple levels of appeals. And it’s only when someone exhausts all of those due processes, that removal is the action. So I just want to say that, but in terms of this particular case, I can’t comment on the details because privacy laws prohibit me from doing that.
Diversity Magazine: Yeah, but let’s look at a situation where somebody came to Canada as a child, and he’s been deported back to a country that he does not know.
Minister Hussen: You’re asking me a hypothetical question. What I’m saying to you is the decision to remove…some people are removed from Canada because that’s also part of our law. But the decision to remove someone is not taken lightly. There are numerous numerous levels of appeals that an individual has access to, they have access to the immigration Refugee Board, they have access to the federal court, and they have access to something called a pre removal risk assessment.
Diversity Magazine: Okay, so let me go to two questions from two of our listeners. Audience really wanted to get this question to the Minister. Yes. So the first one will be from Keri-Lynn, what’s your comment about the SNC Lavalin situation?
Minister Hussen: I think I will defer to the Prime Minister on that. The Prime Minister has spoken on that extensively to the media. And I would, I would defer to the Prime Minister on that. And I have full confidence in our Prime Minister’s ability to follow the law. And to an end he is He has made his on behalf of all of us in government. He has made extensive comments on this issue to the media, he has clarified his position, and I support him.
Diversity Magazine: So let me take a question from Milan, Milan had three questions. But the first one is, what difference do you make, which is maybe Milan is looking at you personally from your position, but what would you say would be some of the differences you’ve made? And
Minister Hussen: what are the differences I’ve made?
Diversity Magazine: Yeah
Minister Hussen: I think I’ve done a lot to improve the immigration system. First of all, I have responsibly grown the immigration levels every year, which has allowed more skilled immigrants to come in and grow our economy. It also it has also allowed more family reunification, which is important to members of our community. But we’ve also, because of higher integration levels, it has also allowed us as a country to offer more people action to refugees. So all those the points we have, we have been able to succeed more as a country because of the efforts of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and our government, which I’m part of the second thing I have done under the instructions on premise or just introducing my manager is to improve client service. That means eliminating backlogs reducing wait times in immigration. And I think we’ve done a lot on that. If you look at the wait times before we showed up in government, they were atrocious people were waiting years for for families, unification applications or other things. We’ve improved the process dramatically. We’re talking about a big, like elimination of backlogs and a big reduction of wait times. And on all the lines of immigration, whether it is citizenship that went down from 24 months to less than 12 months, or spousal sponsorship that went down from 2016 month to less than 12 months. By the way, in that regard, we’ve eliminated the backlogs that we’re in the spousal sponsorship system, the citizenship sponsorship, the citizenship application system, the parent and grandparent system, the caregiver system. If you look at all across the immigration system, all the backlogs of the week long wait, wait times have come down. So that’s something that I have done to improve the system.
Diversity Magazine: Okay, maybe another last one last question. Any other thing you want to share? I know there’s election coming up?
Minister Hussen: Well, I would say, first of all, before we talk about the election, I would say that the African community is a very important community to Canada, I make the point everywhere that I go to try to meet them, and to engage with them and to encourage them to be involved. And to participate. Part of being a Canadian citizen is not just to enjoy the ride, but also discharge your responsibilities. And one of the main responsibilities is to volunteer to create this state in the civic life of this country, and to vote. Voting is very, very important. And I would encourage members of the community to vote to make sure that they come out and, and and vote for Canada, that that believes in diversity leaders that bring people together not leaders that divide people, right. So that’s that would be my message to the African community and to fight fear with facts. There’s a lot of fear mongering now in Canadian politics. And I would suggest that the best way to fight that fear is to fight it with facts. And the fact is diversity makes us stronger. Immigration has been good for Canada. Let’s use the facts that support those arguments to defeat the…
