Government must regulate immigration consultants: Green Party

Immigrants and refugees left to face consequences of lax consultant regulation

OTTAWA - The federal government is shirking its responsibility to regulate immigration consultants and leaving vulnerable immigrants and refugees to face the consequences, said the Green Party today. More than 6000 immigration consultants currently practice in Canada, yet only about 1000 of them are registered with the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC). The media have recently highlighted this dire situation, showing that immigrants and refugees are often given misguided and even fraudulent information.

“With hope and desperation, many immigrants deliver their trust and savings into the hands of consultants who provide poor advice or simply take their money. Our government should be working to support immigrants instead of ignoring the issue and allowing them to be taken advantage of by unregistered consultants,” said Dr. Monika Dutt, Citizenship and Immigration critic for the Green Party of Canada.

"The willingness of some to use peoples' desperation for a better life for their own profit is despicable. As Martin Luther King once said, we cannot eliminate the greed from men's hearts, but governments can temper it with regulation,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

The Liberal government set up the CSIC in 2004 at a cost of $1.2 million, but membership is not a requirement to work as a consultant and there have been no disciplinary hearings despite over two hundred complaints. The mandate of the body is to protect the needs of immigrants and refugees, a task that is not being done.

The Canadian Bar Association is the latest in the collection of voices speaking out against the ineffectiveness of the CSIC. On July 10th they called on the federal government to investigate the specific cases uncovered by the Toronto Star and to examine the mandate of the Society in general.

“The Green Party is calling on Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to fulfill her responsibility to the Canadian public,” said Dr. Dutt. “CSIC membership must be made mandatory for consultants and the government must ensure the CSIC is a credible, accountable and effective regulatory body for immigration consultants.”

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Contact:
Camille Labchuk
613-882-4761