Complaints of racism in the Department of Immigration prompted MPs to recommend all interviews with visa applicants be recorded. The Commons immigration committee also sought appointment of an ombudsman to hear complaints of bigotry..“Visa officer decisions and differentiations do not happen in a vacuum,” said a committee report, Promoting Fairness In Canadian Immigration..“Officers must interpret and apply program criteria and immigration law.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the committee was told of suspiciously high refusal rates for foreign students from Africa and work permit applicants from South Asia. Evidence showed a Canadian visa office in Chandigarh, India rejected 66% of work permit applications while a similar office in Sydney, Australia had a 17% refusal rate..Refugees were also treated unevenly, wrote MPs..“Uneven distribution of delays means the uneven distribution of suffering,” said the report. “The committee heard some refugees face terrible conditions in certain refugee camps and regions such as ongoing fuel, medicine and food shortages.”.MPs complained of different treatment for war refugees from Ukraine compared to Afghanistan. Ukrainian refugees were offered cash grants up to $3,000 and free charter flights while Afghan refugees were limited to repayable loans and travel at sponsors’ expense..“There have been some suggestions at our previous meetings Canada is treating Afghan refugees and Ukrainian refugees differently,” Liberal MP Yvan Baker (Etobicoke Centre, ON) told a May 9 committee hearing..“There are significant differences,” replied Defence Minister Anita Anand..“There’s a fight for democracy in the one country, Ukraine, while there is clearly not a fight for democracy in Afghanistan,” said Anand..“I disagree,” interjected Conservative MP Alex Ruff (Bruce-Grey, ON). “You were comparing what’s going on in Ukraine and Afghanistan and there not being a fight for democracy ongoing in Afghanistan. There absolutely is a fight for democracy going on in that country.”.The immigration department in a 2021 report Anti-Racism Employee Focus Groups documented complaints of bigoted management..“Within our department these problems do exist,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser testified March 24..The Focus Groups report detailed incidents in which managers referred to an office where black employees worked as “the ghetto,” discussed the perceived sexual attributes of “black girls,” asked to pat black employees’ hair and described African countries as “the dirty 30.”.Other managers were quoted as remarking “indigenous people are lazy” and that Mexican immigrants “just come here to collect social insurance.”.The report stated: “The problem is so deeply rooted in the organizational culture and in the values of people in power who have held it for a long time and are not likely to change.”
