| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-399 – The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Ombud Act – creates an Ombud to deal with discrimination in Canada’s immigration system.
Duties
The Ombud’s main job will be to watch the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to make sure their practices are fair and free of bias or discrimination. They will be responsible for:
- Reviewing the Department’s training, standards, and procedures to find biases or discrimination
- Investigating complaints of discrimination by the Department
- Making recommendations to the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship on any findings from these investigations
Most of the rest of this Act is pretty standard and not really worth getting into, it gives the Ombud the ability to handle their investigations the way they think is most effective, allows them to refuse to follow up on complaints if they’re frivolous or the complainant still has options on how to deal with their complaint, and the general setup of the Ombud’s office. It’s worth noting here that the Ombud can’t be criminally charged for anything that’s said or reported during an investigation, nor can they be called as a witness based on something they might have learned during an investigation. Nothing you say to an Ombud can be used against you outside of the investigation.
Anyone who obstructs or lies to the Ombud during an investigation can be fined up to $2,000.
The Ombud will be expected to write an annual report on what work they’ve done, and can also create special reports if they find an issue that they don’t think should wait for the annual report.
Progress of C-399
C-399 is currently outside of the Order of Precedence.
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