:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the invitation to appear before the committee today to discuss the consular services provided to Canadians by the Government of Canada and, in my case certainly, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
[Translation]
Today I'm here with the department's Associate Deputy Minister, Mr. Gerald Cossette. He is not the Chief Executive Officer of the Passport Office, Mr. Chairman.
[English]
My problem. I apologize, Mr. Cossette.
[Translation]
I'm also here with Ms. Lillian Thomsen, Director General, Consular Policy and Advocacy.
Canada provides consular services around the world. The Government of Canada has an official presence in most independent states in the world and provides consular services at more than 260 locations around the planet.
[English]
In these places, we have 498 staff providing consular services abroad and in the department's consular services and emergency management branch at headquarters here in Ottawa. Our staff, who are made up of both locally engaged and Canadian-based people, are professionally trained and dedicated employees whose devotion to the service of their clients is exemplary.
We are supported by partners in providing consular services to Canadians. DFAIT is supported by other departments and agencies, including Passport Canada, which is within the department; the Canada Border Services Agency, represented here today by Mr. Portelance; the Department of National Defence; Citizenship and Immigration; the Public Health Agency of Canada; and the list goes on. It's through these partnerships, Mr. Chairman, that the Government of Canada provides support to Canadians abroad while working to protect citizens against potential security threats.
Our consular services are very busy. On an average day, we open 686 new consular cases, which may include distress situations such as medical emergencies, arrest and detention, child abduction, custody issues, and deaths abroad. Sadly, every day an average of six Canadians are arrested and two die abroad. In the implementation of our consular policies and the development of new policies, we compare notes frequently with a number of key western partners whose approach to issues of citizenship and so on are much the same as our own.
Consular services take many forms, but they belong essentially to two main categories. The first is prevention and education, and here the department helps Canadians to prepare for travel before they go. Second is assistance. The majority of trips go off without a hitch, but unfortunately, even with the best preparation, unforeseen events can occur and Canadians may need assistance from their government.
Canadians are travelling more and more. In 2007, which is the last year for which we have statistics from Statistics Canada, Canadians took close to 50 million international trips. That's about a trip and a half for every Canadian. In addition, an estimated 2.5 million of our fellow citizens live abroad, whether working, studying, or spending their retirement. At the same time, the world is becoming ever more complex, and for this reason, there's an increasing need for consular services. Over the last five years, Mr. Chairman, demand for our services has increased by 32%.
[Translation]
Since 9/11, concerns about security and terrorism have increased and governments around the world, including Canada, have imposed more stringent measures to protect their citizens and their national borders. Kidnappings have become much more common and identity theft has grown exponentially, both at home and abroad.
Canadians are increasingly travelling in a more dangerous world. The changing profile of Canadian travellers, increased travel to remote and dangerous destinations, the pursuit of business opportunities in areas of the world that are politically and economically of higher risk and the growing impact of extreme weather events and other natural disasters worldwide have had significant consequences for the consular program.
[English]
Canadians are undertaking types of travel that were virtually unheard of 10 years ago. These include exotic extreme adventure and ecotourism as well as voluntourism and, largely for an older demographic, medical tourism. More traditional forms of travelling, including all-inclusive vacations and cruises, have seen exponential growth. Young people are also travelling more than ever, studying, working, or touring abroad, often getting by on bare-bones budgets. If they run into difficulty in some remote outpost, they and their families may end up requiring consular help.
In a society built on immigration, a great number of our citizens maintain strong ties to the country of their birth and continue to visit regularly. However, as you know, in many countries the Canadian citizenship of dual nationals is not recognized, which may limit or completely prevent the ability of Canadian officials to provide consular services. Every globe-trotting Canadian is a potential consular client that the Government of Canada must have to serve efficiently and courteously.
Consular services begin before Canadians leave the country. The first rule of the department in providing consular services is to ensure that Canadians have all the information they need to make informed and responsible decisions. The role of Canadian travellers is to make sure that they use that information. We have a consular website, travel.gc.ca, and that's the first step to begin planning a trip. Our website, which receives more than 12,000 visits a day, offers country travel reports for over 200 countries. These reports give an overview of the security situation in a country, any official travel warnings advising against travel to the country or regions of that country, contact information for the nearest Canadian mission, and much more.
We work closely with the travel industry as well in Canada to ensure that our travel reports are used. The travel insurance industry, in fact, relies upon them to determine whether or not they will offer coverage to Canadian travellers.
We also distribute a wide variety of publications, including Bon Voyage, But, which is a primer on safe international travel that is included in every new passport mailed out. Our department, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada, recently released an informative new travel health booklet entitled Well on Your Way. On an average day, we distribute roughly 11,000 safe travel publications.
Information and help is only a phone call away. Canadians outside of Canada can call our emergency operations centre, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by trained, knowledgeable, and resourceful officers. In fact, Mr. Chairman, the United Kingdom is currently looking at this centre as something they are thinking of putting into their system. The centre handles more than 500 calls a day.
Canadians can inform us of their travel plans by registering online via our Registration of Canadians Abroad, our ROCA service, thereby enabling us to contact and assist them in an emergency or inform them of a family emergency at home. More than 100 Canadians register with us every day.
[Translation]
The department provides routine consular services abroad through consular officers and locally-engaged staff. Routine services include, among others: incidents of loss and theft, citizenship applications and inquiries on behalf of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and passport services on behalf of Passport Canada.
We are also faced increasingly with large-scale consular crises, be they acts of terrorism or natural disasters, such as hurricanes in the Caribbean, typhoons in Asia, and catastrophic fires in Athens, to name a few.
[English]
We provide emergency assistance and repatriation to Canadians whenever needed. In the past year, some 1,600 Canadians received assistance in more than 26 separate crises or emergency situations, including terrorists attacks in Mumbai, airport closures in Bangkok, and the evacuation of some 80 Canadians from Gaza.
Let me say, Mr. Chairman, for the purposes of the committee, that the list of services we provide is available to Canadians on our website. Members of the committee can consult the website if they wish to see the services that are on offer.
Last year, DFAIT spent $76.6 million on consular services, an increase of 6% over the previous year. This growing demand for consular services was recognized by the government in budget 2008, which provided an additional $18 million a year in funding to the department to better cope with this demand that I've been describing and to enable the government to reach out to more Canadians in order to ensure that they are well prepared before they leave Canada.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, of the hundreds of thousands of cases that we handle annually, a few are particularly complex. Some of these, but by no means all, come to receive widespread public attention through the media. Each of these cases is unique. I know that members of this committee are interested in them.
The government wishes to be as transparent as possible to ensure that all relevant information regarding these cases is made public. However, a number of considerations must be taken into account.
First of all, any personal information is subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act.
Secondly, in two cases of interest to this committee, Ms. Mohamud and Mr. Khadr have commenced a lawsuit against ministers of the crown and a number of public servants. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on matters touching on the litigation now before the courts.
Finally, with respect to Mr. Abdelrazik, as the committee is aware, this matter has been referred to SIRC for review, and it would be equally inappropriate for the government to comment until such time as SIRC has been able to conduct its full review.
With these comments, Mr. Chairman, I thank you. I look forward to answering questions.
:
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone.
I'd like to thank the members of this committee for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
[English]
Before I begin, I would like to re-emphasize what my colleague Mr. Edwards has mentioned, that certainly the government wishes to be as transparent as possible to ensure that all relevant information regarding Ms. Suaad Mohamud's treatment by Canadian government officials in Kenya is made public. However, a number of considerations must be taken into account.
First of all, any personal information respecting Ms. Mohamud or other individuals is subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act. Moreover, Ms. Mohamud has commenced a lawsuit against three ministers of the crown and a number of public servants. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on matters touching on the litigation before the courts.
[Translation]
Mr. Chairman, my goal today is to give the committee a sense of Canada's approach to border management and its reliance on overseas efforts. Let me stress at the outset that the majority of the CBSA's almost 15,000 resources are located in Canada and that less than 100 are situated abroad. Our role is very focused, but of growing significance, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about our overseas activities.
The challenge, particularly since the beginning of this decade, is to facilitate the experience of international trade and travel, while mitigating threats to border integrity, if possible away from the physical border.
[English]
The structure and strategy of border management adhere to these principles. The Canada Border Services Agency's programs and policies reflect this modern way of approaching border security.
The small complement of our resources situated abroad is performing a valuable function of working with our domestic and international partners to ensure excellence in service to travellers and mitigation of risk. I'd like to take a moment to review the agency's approach to its responsibilities, with particular emphasis on our migration integrity officers, known as MIOs, who perform a key advisory role at points of departure overseas.
[Translation]
As I mentioned, the CBSA has a complex mandate that requires balanced focus to both security and facilitation at the border. This dual role is managed through the strategic placement of resources in Canada and abroad.
Because we understand that the vast majority of our travellers are legitimate and law-abiding citizens, the goals of security and efficiency at the border are often achieved at once, by making decisions about how and where we assess the risk.
The goal is to be able to assess and interdict risks away from Canada, prior to their materialization at the physical border, and provide service to travellers, traders and immigrants that facilitates their voyage to Canada by ensuring in advance that all requirements have been satisfied.
[English]
The CBSA has a number of such programs. We have pursued several initiatives to assess information related to inbound travellers, goods, and conveyances. These include our trusted traveller program; our container security initiative, which locates Canadian personnel at foreign ports in order to examine cargo prior to its departure; and the migration integrity officers, a growing network of offshore officers. I will explain this more fully in a moment.
These programs and the underlying policies are all examples of the agency's growing commitment to managing risk away from the border rather than at the ports of entry. This distribution of work means that the resources at our ports can more readily focus on the facilitation of legitimate travel and trade.
As I alluded to a moment ago, the CBSA already has a substantial international platform of officers who work abroad. The CBSA currently has 56 migration integrity officers located in 46 key embarkation, transit, and immigration points.
[Translation]
Migration integrity officers work closely with other Canadian departments, foreign mission representatives, airlines and host country officials and are involved in a range of activities including interdiction, airlines liaison, anti-fraud, intelligence gathering, training and removals.
In performing their duties, officers work closely with Citizenship and Immigration program managers, visa officers and consular staff. IATA's Code of Conduct for immigration liaison officers establishes the objectives for MIOs and governs their powers and responsibilities in foreign jurisdictions. Human trafficking, immigration fraud, terrorism, piracy and organized crime are international concerns. Their effects are universal. Canada is not alone in distributing its resources around the globe to meet these new challenges. Many other countries share this approach and more and more countries are following suit.
[English]
Working closely with airlines, our MIOs enhance service to travellers and immigrants by ensuring that documentary requirements are satisfied, and thereby reduce costs for airlines to return inadmissible persons and remove potential burdens on the Canadian refugee system. The MIO program is successful both in risk mitigation and from the service perspective.
There are approximately 20 million passengers arriving in Canada each year. Last year we interdicted approximately 5,000 people. At the same time, the CBSA facilitated, through direct intervention, approximately 3,000 individuals with travel document problems, the majority of whom were Canadians returning home.
In closing, I would like to reiterate the valuable role that MIOs play in ensuring that the agency meets its obligation to border integrity while safely and efficiently processing the vast number of legitimate goods and travellers entering Canada every day. CBSA's use of these important resources abroad are key to supporting a global effort to mitigate risks spanning terrorism, firearms, drugs, contraband, illegal immigration, and food and product safety.
[Translation]
Again, Mr. Chairman, my thanks to the committee for hearing me today.
I look forward to any questions you may have.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the officials for coming here today.
There are some questions that are really disturbing about what is happening here, specifically with the , who is having his coffee. Maybe if he would come to his seat, we could address some of our concerns.
As the deputy minister has stated, over 50 million trips are made abroad every year. There are a large number of Canadians travelling overseas, and as pointed out, there are unfortunate circumstances that require consular assistance--this year alone, 250,000 new cases, as the deputy minister said. Right now, there are 26,000 open cases being handled by consular people.
The members opposite were in the government and were responsible for the administration of government services. As you can see in their title, they write the word “Honourable”, which means they were members of the Privy Council and subject to the highest clearance available to see the operations of the Government of Canada. This then goes to the point very clearly that they know exactly how the Government of Canada works, because they were part of the Government of Canada.
But what is really disturbing is when they go out publicly and, for cheap political points, accuse the same department that they had been working with, insinuating that it is racist, that there's racism in the department and a two-tier system in the department.
I want to ask the member for Pickering, who was in charge of consular services at that time, what was he doing if he feels that this department that he's talking about--
:
Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, thank you for having me and my adviser, Julian Falconer, speak to you.
I have had a simple life. All I have is my son, my family, and my friends. I work hard to support my son. I try to keep him on the right path.
As politicians, you are responsible for making sure that Canadians are safe. You are responsible for Canadian citizens. You have to stand up for Canadians wherever they are. But your officials took away my rights and my freedom.
I'm telling you my story because I want to make sure that what happened to me does not happen to any other Canadian.
On April 30, I crossed into Nairobi to visit my family. I showed them my passport to get on the plane in Toronto, and I showed it again at a stopover in Amsterdam. I showed it to Kenyan authorities when I landed in Nairobi. No one stopped me or questioned me as to whether my passport really belonged to me.
Three weeks later, I started my trip home. I was looking forward to seeing my son again. I arrived at the airport on May 21. I had no idea that it would be three months before I came home again. Two KLM workers stopped me. They said I did not look like my passport picture, that my lips were not the same. I had been told by many people that they had been forced to pay a bribe to airport employees, to put money in their passports. I refused to do it, so they kept me there.
They held me at the airport overnight. I was allowed to call the Canadian High Commission and I spoke with someone there. I told them who I was, where I worked, and where I lived. I thought they would help me. The next morning, two officials from the Canadian High Commission came to see me at the airport. They put a picture of my son on the table. I picked it up right away. I told them that it was my son's photo, but they did not believe me. I begged them to call my family in Canada to tell them, but they did not begin to call my family in Canada. I told them to call my workplace, but they did not. They just told me, “You are not Suaad.”
They left me there at the airport, where I was kept for four days. Instead of helping me, they told the Kenyans that I was an impostor. They gave the Kenyans my passport to help them to charge me as a criminal.
On May 25, the Kenyans let me go, on a bond. They told me I had two weeks to prove who I was. They took me to the High Commission, where I showed the Canadians everything in my wallet, all my ID, everything in my bag. I showed them my travel documents, my driver's licence, my Canadian citizenship, my social insurance card, my insurance card, even a dry cleaning receipt, my Bell Canada calling card, my OHIP card, my son's social insurance card, my Visa card, and my health card. I also showed them Canadian Tire money. They did not believe me. Again, they told me that I was not Suaad. I asked them to call people who knew me in Canada, but they didn't.
After two weeks, when the Canadian High Commission still did not accept my identity, I had to go to jail. The commission told the Kenyans that I was not a Canadian. I was charged for possessing and using a passport issued to another person and being unlawfully present in Kenya. I was in that jail from June 3 to June 11 before my mother could get me out on bail. I went through a horrible time, and I never want another Canadian to go through such a troubling thing.
I was locked in a prison with murderers, and one lady had blood on her hand. They told me that she killed her boyfriend. I was so afraid that I could not sleep. There were too many people in there, and we slept on the floor. There were even small children with their mothers who were locked up.
I have never been in a jail, I've never been in trouble, and I've never been guilty of anything. I got sick and I thought I was going to die. All I could think of was that I promised my son I would come back soon, but I could never see him again. Even when I got out of the prison, the Canadian government fought against me. It was only because of the pressure from people in Canada that they finally started to look at my case.
On July 9, I gave them my fingerprints. Later they told me that they did not keep my fingerprints from when I became a Canadian citizen in 2003. I don't know if that's true.
On July 15, my employer at ATS, Andromeier Transportation Services Inc., confirmed in writing with the second secretary of the High Commission in Nairobi, Mr. Huard, that I was employed with the company and that I was on approved vacation.
:
On July 22 Mr. Andrew Jenkins, intelligence officer with the Canada Border Services Agency, physically attended at the ATS office in Canada. My workers identified the photo of me. Even though a federal investigator had already confirmed who I was, Minister Lawrence Cannon told the country on July 24 that there was no proof; he made the country believe I was an imposter.
Even with the photo identification, they wanted more. My lawyer had to go to court to force them to check my DNA. Even then they fought me. They had promised to take my DNA sample by July 25. They did not do it until July 27. Then they waited two days to send the DNA to the lab in Canada. They did not send the package with the DNA by a quick route. It did not arrive in Canada until August 4. Finally, on August 10, my son's DNA proved that I was me, Suaad.
I told my son I was just going away for a short time. I was gone for three and a half months. Now he is afraid when I leave him.
What would have happened if my son had come with me to Kenya? How could I have proved who I was? What would have happened if I did not have a child?
When they called those people and the Kenyan immigration people said I did not look like my passport photo, I did not give up. I told them I was a Canadian. So I called my government. I thought my government would back me up. But I was alone when my government let me down.
I ended up in jail in Kenya because of the Canadian officials. They took away my rights. They took away my identity and my freedom. And they told the Kenyans that I was a criminal. They thought I was an imposter. I was separated from my son because of the Canadian government. From the beginning, they presumed I was guilty.
I'm very happy to be back in Canada. I'm back with my son. I've always believed that being a Canadian meant I had rights and freedom, and I still believe that.
I want to thank so many people who supported me and got my story out: my family, my friends, all the journalists, and my lawyer, Raoul Boulakia. They are the people who brought me back to Canada. They stood up for me when the Canadian officials turned their backs on me. Not everyone would have been lucky enough to have so much help. How many people are out there standing like I was? I would never have believed that I would go to jail for saying I'm a Canadian citizen.
You are the ones who are responsible for protecting Canadian citizens and making sure that we have our rights and freedom. You must stand up for us wherever we are.
And thank you to our witnesses for their testimony.
I too would be of the point of view that all of us, as members of Parliament here to represent citizens, wherever they come from in the country and wherever they are in the world, want to offer our apologies in terms of what happened to you. It should never have happened. Ms. Mohamud, I say very sincerely to you that we did fail.
Let's just put it aside for a second. What often happens here is that people will try to put forward their arguments and people will try to position themselves, and it's a game at times that just shouldn't be played. And when it's something as serious as citizenship--and I say this without prejudice to anyone around this table--it should be clear that these things shouldn't happen. So my sincere apology on behalf of myself and my colleagues, and I would hope others will join at the appropriate time.
But to get to the issues, I think your testimony--and I'm sure I share this with everyone here--shakes us to the soul about what can happen to someone. But you also said in your comments that you hope this doesn't happen to another Canadian and that's why you chose to do the brave thing you did today and present your story. But I could have in this chair Mr. Arar, and I could have in this chair Mr. Abdelrazik, and I could have in this chair Bashir Makhtal, who is still in an Ethiopian jail. I could go down the list, and I'm sad to say that's what they said. And in the case of Mr. Makhtal, he isn't able to say that yet. It angers me. It gives me absolute certainty that we have to do something. I don't want to hear another story come before us, because it means we've failed entirely. We are failing right now. That's not a game to be played, a partisan chip to be played, but it's about the fact that Canadian citizens abroad aren't being served, and you have just told us yet another story of what happens.
I know that in the case of Saudi Arabia we have diplomatic relations. If we can't do something for a Canadian citizen in this situation, then we have to question what we're doing.
Ms. Mohamud, you said it was the KLM officials who questioned you on your passport. It's interesting to note that when I asked the government officials whether we train officials from other governments, they said, no, we train airline officials. So it's your belief that they're the ones who called you on your passport and said, “We don't believe you are who this represents”, which I would connect directly to our training. I'm saying that, and I've heard evidence from officials that in fact we do train people from airlines. You would have heard that just in the testimony before. So then you end up in jail and in circumstances no one should be under.
In terms of the response from the Canadian government--and I want to be clear here--you said that instead of going to your aid to help you, they questioned you further as to whether you were who you were?