McLaughlin College Senior Common Room (140 McL)
Noon - 2:30 A light lunch will be served.
Roger Rickwood was a Canadian refugee judge for ten years, and currently teaches political science courses on a part-time basis at York University. He was in York University's first graduating class, and George Tatham was his mentor.
Canada has signed the Geneva Convention and has promised to protect vulnerable people who would be in great danger if they were returned to their home country as a result of religious, ethnic, or political persecution. However, Canada's refugee determination system has never provided a right of appeal to refugee claimants who are rejected; they must first apply for permission to appeal. Canadians have a right to appeal parking tickets, but refugee applicants in Canada do not have a right to appeal life-and-death decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board. In 2002, the Canadian government passed legislation to establish a Refugee Appeal Division, but the Division has never been established. The current government claims that it would be too expensive.
Rickwood wonders whether the proposed Refugee Appeal Division may be a false solution to a real problem.
Everyone is welcome
