John Ivison: Diab’s ‘lost Canadians’ debacle raises doubt anyone’s in charge at the Immigration Department

2026/07/02 Leave a comment

Not pulling any punches. Almost a death watch:

….It is unclear why the minister didn’t say much of this a lot sooner, even if it involved admitting that the process was badly designed and deeply flawed.

This, remember, is the same department that granted travel documents to Mehdi Taj, an Iranian soccer official who a quick Google search would have revealed had ties to the banned Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

It is the same department that was berated by the auditor general for its handling of the International Students Program, under which 33,660 ex-students were presumed to have left the country but may not have done.

It’s not so much that the Immigration Department seems to be in a state of semi-organized chaos. Diab inherited many of the problems, including the dramatic surge in temporary workers and foreign students that contributed to the housing crisis.

It’s more that she seems completely at sea when it comes to fixing things. Her parliamentary colleagues answer on her behalf in the House of Commons; her deputy minister assumed the same role when she appeared at committee.

As the prime minister weighs his options for the fall session, it would seem inevitable that Diab is demoted in any summer cabinet shuffle.

She seems to be a very nice person.

But she is like a one-legged man auditioning for the job of Tarzan, “a role for which two legs would seem to be the minimum requirement.” In political terms, like Peter Cook’s aspiring Tarzan in a celebrated comedy sketch, Diab has one leg too few.

Source: John Ivison: Diab’s ‘lost Canadians’ debacle raises doubt anyone’s in charge at the Immigration Department

Background: Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls

The immigration department says unclear department guidance for both immigration officers and applicants on how to apply for citizenship-by-descent may have led to people being issued proofs of citizenship without sufficient evidence.

The department said Tuesday that 100 people were told to surrender their citizenship certificates after a “routine review” found documents issued under Bill C-3 had “potentially insufficient supporting documentation.”

The department issued this explanation — and confirmation of the number of people who were told to turn over their citizenship certificates — a full 17 days after the initial emails demanding the surrender of citizenship certificates were sent out….

Source: Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls

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Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

2026/06/24 Leave a comment

Interesting take:

If Prime Minister Mark Carney wanted a low-key minister to handle the Liberals’ immigration mess and stay out of the headlines, he may have found the right person in Lena Metlege Diab.

Whether or not by design, Immigration Minister Diab, unlike her predecessors, has maintained a low profile. That’s despite relentless attacks by the opposition Conservatives over her invisibility and competence in the high-stakes portfolio.

The MP from Nova Scotia has been lambasted by critics for relying on bureaucrats to answer questions at committee, and being unclear in communicating policies and less responsive than her predecessors.

In the year and a bit since she was tapped by Carney to lead the file, Diab seems to have delivered what the prime minister has asked her to do in returning overall immigration to more “sustainable levels” — at least in terms of slashing the immigrant population.

A Parliamentary Budget Officer report this year projected the share of non-permanent residents will fall under five per cent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, aligning with the government target.

But the system the Nova Scotia MP inherited is still in flux, rife with uncertainty, backlogs and long processing times — issues that experts say need to be urgently addressed to restore stability and faith in Canadian immigration.

Diab ‘turns down political heat’

“Her mandate certainly was to turn down the political heat on immigration, and I would say that she’s done that successfully,” said Victoria-based immigration lawyer Kyle Hyndman. 

“A lot of the immigration conversation has got really focused on numbers. We’re not talking about bushels of soya beans here. We’re talking about people who are very different in terms of what they bring to Canada and in terms of what they need. This conversation about reaching a sustainable level of immigration is only half of the question.”

And the falling numbers of temporary residents are what Diab has wanted to register with Canadians….

University of Toronto political science professor Phil Triadafilopoulos said Canada’s immigration system is still in transition, rolling back a messy expansion under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, especially after the pandemic. And the repair can only be done in “a piecemeal way,” he added.

He said the issues of temporary residents have built up ever since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s time, and exploded in 2022 and ‘23 as politicians caved to the demands of colleges and universities to recruit foreign students to offset government funding cuts, as well as the push by businesses seeking easy access to foreign labour.

“The expectation is that most people will leave, but we know from experience that a large number of people will not leave and will overstay and live in a more precarious way,” said Triadafilopoulos.

To Carney, he added, Diab seemed to be the right person to keep immigration issues out of the news cycle because the PM needed someone to do things quietly and not want to be in the news all the time, to “decompress immigration.” His sense is that the Prime Minister’s Office is now steering the boat and trying to return the Immigration Department to an operation led by civil servants…

Source: Critics see Canada’s immigration minister as weak and invisible a year into her mandate. But is she doing exactly what Mark Carney wants?

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Immigration Minister faces criticism from lawyers after interview with influencer

2026/04/27 Leave a comment

Yet another misstep:

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire from immigration lawyers for conducting an interview where she discussed forthcoming policy with a social-media influencer who also runs platforms for foreign nationals hoping to settle or study in Canada. 

Ms. Metlege Diab earlier this month conducted a 30-minute interview with Max Medyk about immigration policy, including about a soon-to be announced program allowing thousands of temporary residents to apply for permanent residency, or PR. 

She suggested the program, which has yet to be announced, would be available to people living outside big metropolitan areas. 

During the interview, Mr. Medyk drew the minister’s attention to a site he founded allowing foreign nationals to search for jobs that can lead to PR, and a property rental site used by newcomers and others he acts as an ambassador for. 

The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, a non-profit organization with about 500 members, wrote to Ms. Metlege Diab Wednesday expressing concern that she had given indications about a forthcoming policy allowing temporary residents to apply for PR during the interview. CILA’s director Grace Allen said details about the temporary residence to PR program, first referenced in last year’s budget, was being communicated in a piecemeal way including through “commercial and monetized social media platforms,” before being verified by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department, leading to confusion and anxiety among prospective newcomers….

Source: Immigration Minister faces criticism from lawyers after interview with influencer

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Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings

2026/04/01 Leave a comment

Yet another policy and program failure that undermines public confidence in immigration and refugees:

The independent tribunal that decides refugee claims has since 2019 ruled on more than 45,000 asylum cases based on paperwork alone without an in-person hearing, raising concerns from the Conservatives and experts that this could dilute scrutiny and compromise national security. 

Figures provided to MPs on the Commons immigration committee by the Immigration and Refugee Board show that in that period, Iranian asylum claimants have had the most claims decided without an in-person hearing, with 10,730 claims decided based on paper reviews of their files. 

Last year, 2,218 cases of alleged persecution in Iran – where the theocratic regime has imprisoned and killed scores of its critics – were decided after reviewing the files of asylum applicants, with 2,105 decided without a hearing in 2024 and 3,124 in 2023. 

Between 2019 and 2025, the IRB decided 45,595 cases through “paper processes.” These included 4,220 paper-only asylum decisions on cases from Afghanistan. There were 484 such “file-review” adjudications from Palestinians, 6,827 from Turkey, 1,273 from Yemen, 2,542 from Pakistan and 256 from Iraq, the IRB figures show. 

Asylum claimants from Haiti had 3,379 cases decided without a hearing between 2019 and 2025, including 2,471 last year. …

James Yousif, a former member of the IRB who adjudicated on cases, has been raising concerns that paper-only decisions could heighten the risk of fraud and weaken security screening.

“It is not possible to tell a true claim from a made-up claim just by reading the documents in each file,” he said in an e-mail. “Asking questions at a hearing is absolutely essential to detecting fraud and risks to Canada’s national security. There is no substitute for this.” 

Ms. Metlege Diab previously told MPs on the committee that each person claiming asylum is subject to security screening. She said decisions are made on a case-by-case basis by the IRB tribunal, which operates independently of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

But in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Redekopp expressed concern that the file-review process is being used “to expedite asylum claims without interviewing claimants, even from high-risk countries like Iran.” 

“Even worse, the Immigration Minister won’t take responsibility for this security gap, saying the IRB is independent – even though she is the minister responsible for the IRB,” he said. “Canadians expect a rigorous and thorough immigration vetting process and we are calling on the Immigration Minister to take action.”…

Source: Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings

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Where is Canada’s immigration minister? Community groups are asking

2026/02/26 Leave a comment

Don’t expect her to survive the next shuffle:

When Lena Diab was appointed head of Canada’s Immigration Department, community expectations were high.

The new minister is the daughter of immigrants, is trilingual and spent part of her childhood in Lebanon. Diab had also previously served in cabinet in her home province of Nova Scotia.

“It seemed like the perfect plan,” said Stephan Reichhold, executive director of the Quebec-based Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes.

But Reichhold quickly became disillusioned with a minister who, in his opinion, was conspicuous in her absence.

Members of Parliament are also expressing disappointment in Diab’s performance — including some of her fellow Liberal caucus members.

‘She is completely absent’

Reichhold said he has never managed to speak directly with Diab, despite repeatedly asking to meet following her swearing-in last May.

“I have seen 14 immigration ministers come and go, and it is truly surprising. We are really astonished that she is completely absent,” Reichhold said.

That’s in contrast with her predecessor Marc Miller, who Reichhold said had frequent contact with stakeholders in the field even when his government lowered its immigration targets.

Radio-Canada spoke with five other organizations that criticized Diab’s availability. Among them is the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which spoke with the minister only once, via videoconference, last spring.

The organization is seeking to open a path to permanent residency for Ukrainians who have fled the war, but has still not managed to secure an in-person meeting with Diab. Her predecessors were more readily available, said the CEO of the congress, Ihor Michalchyshyn.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “We haven’t been able to schedule a meeting despite several attempts.”

Organizations also note that the minister is not very visible in the media, even as the immigration issue was widely covered in Quebec.

When asked to comment, Diab declined Radio-Canada’s request for an interview and did not provide a written response.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Mark Carney said that “as minister of immigration, [Diab] plays a key role in the government’s mandate to bring immigration back to sustainable levels, while attracting the best talent in the world to help build our economy.”

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did not comment on the criticism from community groups.

Committee presence criticized

On the few occasions when Diab has been visible — in parliamentary committee, for example — her performance has raised eyebrows.

At the end of October, the minister had difficulty answering a question from the Bloc Québécois about processing times for refugee status applications and sought information from the civil servants sitting next to her.

Exasperated, MP Claude DeBellefeuille snapped, “Madam minister, why won’t you answer me? It’s your power. Why are you delegating it to your civil servant?”

“There are many laws governing these issues,” Diab replied, adding that “it depends on the circumstances.”

A few weeks later, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner, known for her sharp tongue in committee, questioned Diab about the possibility of extending the visas of millions of temporary residents and called her a “very bad minister.” The exchange was widely shared on social media.

“I understand as a woman in politics, sometimes you can get framed unfairly,” said Rempel Garner in an interview with Radio-Canada. “But she is the minister of immigration. She has to step it up, right? And I just, I haven’t seen that.… I feel like I know the file far better than she does.”

The minister testified this month before two Senate committees studying the border security legislation Bill C-12. On several occasions, Diab had to give the floor to the officials accompanying her, visibly unable to answer the questions.

“She doesn’t have a strong command of her file,” said Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, who was present during some of these committee exchanges and who, until recently, was the Bloc’s immigration critic.

Discouraged Liberals 

Criticism is coming not only from opposition parties, but also from Diab’s own Liberal colleagues.

Away from the cameras, 10 Liberal MPs spoke to Radio-Canada about her performance. They were granted confidentiality in order to express themselves freely.

Of those, only one defended Diab’s job performance. Although several of them emphasized that she is a “good person” in charge of a “difficult” portfolio, nine MPs said they believe that the minister is overwhelmed and are openly questioning her place at the cabinet table.

“It doesn’t make sense. In the House of Commons, many MPs hold their breath when she answers questions from the opposition,” said one Liberal elected official.

“We’re afraid she’ll put her foot in her mouth.”

Source: Where is Canada’s immigration minister? Community groups are asking

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Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Further dilution of the human capital approach and the CRS. Better than the Francophone category but still…:

Canada is expanding its Express Entry immigration program, adding three new permanent residency streams that cover a range of professions the Liberal government says are needed to fill critical labour gaps, including researchers and military personnel, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced Wednesday.

The new categories under the Express Entry stream will give priority to researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience; applicants with work experience in transport occupations, including pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors; and highly skilled foreign military applicants.

The new streams are part of what Diab calls a federal strategy to attract “top talent” to the country.

“We’ve identified these sectors as areas in critical need,” Diab said in a speech in Toronto. “Strengthening those helps us move goods across the country and to new markets, supporting trade, supply chains and economic resilience.”

Diab said the decision to have a new category for skilled foreign military applicants, along with other categories, “supports Canada’s defence industrial strategy,” and aims to “strengthen our armed forces, defend our sovereignty and to keep Canadians safe.”

This announcement comes after a new category for foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience was announced in December. Diab at the time said this was part of a broader plan to move away from a “one-size fits all” immigration approach and make it easier for people in certain professions to come to or remain in Canada.

The 2026 immigration levels plan prioritizes permanent economic immigrants while reducing temporary admissions, particularly for students, as Ottawa ramps up its efforts to attract highly skilled workers and scientists from around the world.

The federal government in December announced it would spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to attract and retain leading international researchers to Canada. The funding is slated to support salaries, new infrastructure, grants and the recruitment of more than 1,000 doctors, researchers and scientists.

“Our Express Entry system is at the core of our approach for attracting and retaining the skilled workers Canada needs,” Diab said Wednesday.

“We’re not waiting for the right people to find us,” she said. “We will go out into the world to recruit the people our country needs, to connect them with Canadian employers and to highlight why Canada is the place” to build their careers and lives.

Canada has long struggled to retain in-demand, highly skilled workers. A November report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada, titled “The Leaky Bucket 2025,” found that one in five immigrants are leaving Canada within 25 years of landing and highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels.

Many newcomers remain stuck in precarious, low-wage work due to a labour market that continues to undervalue international experience. More than 30 per cent of newcomers ages 25-54 with a post-secondary education reported they were overqualified for their job compared to 19.7 per cent of Canadian-born workers, according to Statistics Canada.

Source: Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

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Immigration Minister defends proposed changes to asylum rules through border bill

2026/02/18 Leave a comment

Of note. Hard for refugee advocates to admit need for limits or the extent of misrepresentation:

…Canada has seen an increase in asylum claims from international students, who have been the target of immigration restrictions, in the last few years. Over the past year, 17 per cent of asylum claims came from students, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. 

Ms. Metlege Diab answered questions about the asylum implications of Bill C-12 along with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree on Feb. 9 at the Senate’s national-security committee.

On Thursday, she was questioned by senators on the social affairs committee, which is also studying the bill. 

Senators also heard unease expressed from a range of witnesses, including the UN Refugee Agency.

One of the concerns is that the proposed one-year cutoff for asylum hearings would be measured from the first time someone entered Canada. The bill specifies that the one-year period “begins on the day after the day of their first entry.”

Refugee advocacy groups warned senators this could mean that someone who came here on holiday as a child with their parents would be barred from a refugee hearing decades later.

They also hit back at suggestions that foreign nationals claiming asylum, including international students who had been here for more than a year, were more likely to lodge fraudulent claims. 

Gauri Sreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a non-profit advocacy organization for refugee and immigrant rights, was among those who addressed the Senate committee. 

“Suggestions before committees that certain claimants are likely to be fraudulent because they are students or because they have been here more than a year are as unfounded as they are offensive,” Ms. Sreenivasan told senators.

“These blunt measures disproportionately harm the most vulnerable: women fleeing violence, LGBTQIA+ individuals, minors, those with mental health challenges or people from unstable regions.”…

Source: Immigration Minister defends proposed changes to asylum rules through border bill

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Immigration minister wants department to track exits of temporary residents

2026/02/02 Leave a comment

Long overdue:

Immigration Minister Lena Diab says she wants her department to acquire the ability to track the number of people with temporary visas who are exiting the country.

The immigration department confirms almost 1.9 million temporary visas, including work and study permits, are expiring this year. More than 2.1 million expired last year.

Diab said the Canada Border Services Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are able to track some information about specific people and groups, but there’s no simple way to track how many temporary residents are leaving Canada.

Diab said she’d like to change that with the help of digital tools.

“There’s a number countries around the world that do track those. And I believe we need to also be doing that,” Diab said in a phone interview with The Canadian Press.

“Did we have the capabilities to do that before? No. Should we? I think yes, and that is something that you will see us working toward.”

Aaron McCrorie, CBSA vice president of intelligence and enforcement, told a House of Commons committee hearing on Oct. 21 that the agency can track who is leaving Canada, their method of transportation, their date of birth and the travel documents they use.

He said CBSA doesn’t currently have the ability to determine if someone is leaving because of an expired visa. McCrorie told the committee it can manually check that on a case-by-case basis, a process he described as “very labour-intensive.”

People with temporary visas contributed to a major increase in asylum claims in 2024.

A response to a written question from Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner on asylum claims shows more than 112,000 people on temporary resident visas and nearly 22,000 people with study permits applied for asylum in 2024….

Source: Immigration minister wants department to track exits of temporary residents

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Officials processing foreign nationals’ visas, permanent-residence applications will not face job cuts: minister

2026/01/20 Leave a comment

Of note and to watch whether processing times improve or not:

Federal employees processing applications from foreign nationals for temporary or permanent residence in Canada will be insulated from forthcoming public-service cuts, Immigration Minister Lena Diab says.

Government departments have begun rolling out plans to reduce staffing levels, honouring a pledge made in last year’s budget to cut the number of public servants by about 30,000 over five years. The federal public service numbered almost 358,000 employees last year.

Statistics Canada this month said it plans to cut more than 850 jobs. 

Natural Resources Canada told The Globe and Mail last week that approximately 700 employees received letters last month informing them that their position may be affected. The department said it plans to eliminate approximately 400 positions by 2028-29.

Other government departments are expected to announce job cuts shortly. 

In an interview, Ms. Diab, who oversees Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said public servants working on applications for settlement, employment and study here will not be among those facing job cuts.

She said the agency’s staffing is tied to Ottawa’s annual immigration levels plan, which sets targets for the numbers of people admitted for entry to Canada.

“The way IRCC has been funded over the years, it’s funded based on the levels plan, and so therefore that will not change. The people that are processing those numbers, they’ll still be there. They will not be affected,” Ms. Diab said. 

IRCC has huge backlogs in processing of applications for permanent residence, with some wait times stretching to more than 10 years. 

Toronto immigration lawyer Stephen Green said many applicants were facing long delays in decisions about their immigration status because of the backlogs. But he said IRCC officers were creating more work by failing to call applicants who may have, for instance, made slight mistakes or forgotten to include a document with their application. He said rejections of applications for small errors were leading to a slew of Federal Court challenges. 

“They need better processing, and just picking up the phone to check things could increase efficiencies. If picking up the phone can resolve an issue quickly, officials should be encouraged to do that,” Mr. Green said. 

Source: Officials processing foreign nationals’ visas, permanent-residence applications will not face job cuts: minister

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Liberals to open new fast track to permanent residency for 5,000 foreign doctors

2025/12/10 2 Comments

Strange that about one month after issuing the levels plan, the government has effectively increased the levels by 5,000. Hard not to understand why this was not within the current levels, as it appears more sleight of hand as were the other one-time additions. Does not help the overall message that the government is getting immigration more under control (even if it is):

The federal government is promising to open up permanent residency for foreign doctors working in Canada as temporary foreign residents in order to tackle the doctor shortage across the country. 

Immigration Minister Lena Diab announced the policy shift in Toronto Monday, saying 5,000 spots for international doctors would be opened over and above current immigration levels. 

“Many of these doctors are already treating patients in our communities. We cannot afford to lose them,” Diab said. 

The plan involves creating a new express entry category for foreign doctors starting in 2026 for physicians with at least one year of Canadian work experience over the last three years who currently have a job offer. 

A government statement said that physicians eligible for the program include primary care doctors as well as specialists in surgery, clinical and laboratory medicine….

Source: Liberals to open new fast track to permanent residency for 5,000 foreign doctors

Some numbers in the Globe article:

Across Canada, the numbers of physicians coming north this year have increased.

Ontario has issued certificates to 493 U.S.-trained physicians this year, up from 209 last year. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC has seen 405 applications from U.S.-trained physicians this year, nearly double the total from the previous two years. Nova Scotia has issued provincial licences to 34 U.S.-trained doctors this year, more than double the 2024 total.

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