The Toronto Star run a story purporting to show that adjudications vary widely amongst Members of the Immigration and Refugee Board ( IRB), even after taking into consideration the assignment of cases to different Members on a regional basis. The story claims that, in the same regional group, there are wild inconsistencies in the decision-making process, and while some members accept virtually all claims, others accept a very small percentage. That the IRB is a useless body open to abuse from all sides has been known for years. The Liberals stacked the IRB with political hacks since its inception, and many defeated MPs, Senators' relatives, Liberal party fundraisers and others found a good gig to the tune of around $ 100K a year. On the otter hand, refugee interest groups such as the Canadian Council of Refugees constantly pressure the body to allow more positive decisions. Attempts to reform the Member selection process are half-hearted, pander to interest and ethnic group sand are not strictly based on merit. Nothing will ever change until it is abolished and replaced by a body composed of judges who will be lawyers with tenure, selected strictly on a merit basis, with adversarial hearings open to the public like every other court of law, and where bogus applicants can be challenged on there fabricated stories in open court, while people will also see the legitimacy of meritorious claims that are wrongfully denied by bad decisions. The Board has to go...the sooner, the better. It serves no purpose other than being a good way for bogus claimants to play the system for time, and may be even get lucky and get through, while legitimate claims languish in the lineup.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/251233
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