Immigration Lawyer Steven Meurrens from Vancouver wrote this post on LinkedIn today :
In February 2023, former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser issued a Public Policy directing IRCC to essentially bulk-approve all visitor visa applications submitted before January 16, 2023. The intent was to clear the massive pandemic-era backlog and "position Canada for a clean start."
Perhaps not surprisingly, many of those admitted under this policy later filed asylum claims at a higher-than-average rate. At the time, some observers suggested that IRCC likely would have preferred simply to cancel the pending applications altogether.
Bill C-12 now seeks to grant that very power, allowing the Governor in Council to cancel any applications still in process
as well as existing and valid visas, PR cards, work permits, study permits, and more.
This has raised reasonable concerns about whether IRCC might use this new authority to eliminate other backlogs, such as in the Humanitarian and Compassionate Class (with its 50-year processing time), Start-Up Business, or Self-Employed classes.
Questions have now logically arisen regarding whether IRCC will use Bill C-12's ability to cancel applications in these categories to terminate the backlogs.
During today's #CIMM meeting, Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi (who is impressive) asked Minister Diab if this was IRCC's plan. The Minister said no, and then went on to say that she wanted to be clear that Bill C-12 does not permit IRCC to cancel asylum claims, assuring claimants that their cases would not be affected. It is hard to tell what to make of her response.
The purpose of Bill C-12 remains unclear, apart from the fact that it grants sweeping new powers to government. As Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner pointed out, there are no safeguards. And of course, even if the government has no current intention to use these powers broadly to cancel application categories, it can always change its mind in the future.
At this point, the government appears to have three choices. It can increase admissions quotas in the above three categories to reduce backlogs. It can accept multi-decade processing times. Or it can cancel applications altogether. It's not unreasonable for people to be concerned that they will choose the latter