My visitor visa fairness bill would provide an appeal so there would be transparency and clear standards for all applications. A few tribunals are already available to all visitors to England and to Australia. It is time we bring fairness to those who want to visit Canada and their Canadian friends and relatives.

October 26, 2010  OTTAWA – Today’s Auditor General’s report revealed that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has failed to set a comprehensive set of standards for service delivery.  ‪“The Auditor General’s report confirms what Canadians already know – the Conservative government delivers lousy second-rate service to immigrants,” said New Democrat Immigration critic Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina). [...]

With regard to temporary resident visa applications for both the applicant and the applicant’s Canadian host, for each application, what is the breakdown of the following admissibility criteria:

Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Indian Army officials attending the G20 summit, Winnie Mandela, George Galloway and the 60 delegates to the Union francophone des aveugles have been given no real information about why they are barred from coming to Canada.

November 16, 2009 Dear friends and colleagues interested in immigration and refugee issues, The 2009 Citizenship and Immigration annual report was published recently. I am very disturbed by the decline of the target number of families that will be approved next year. With a lower target number, and overseas offices buried in paper, families will [...]

MICHAEL T. PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN INC. PHOTO Toronto Star – Sep 30, 2009 04:30 AM When Dave Ritchie and Mary Anne Rutherford were married in August 2009, officials allowed her aunt to attend from the Philippines but not a cousin. Toronto MP founds Facebook group to press Ottawa to adopt a formal and free appeal [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 OTTAWA – New Democrat Immigration Critic Olivia Chow is demanding changes to the current visitor visa system which will address the arbitrary approval process and lack of recourse for unsuccessful applicants.

Regarding the denial of entry to Bill Ayers January 19th, 2009 Dear Minister Kenny and Minister Van Loan, I find it absolutely deplorable that American education professor and educational theorist Bill Ayers was denied entry into Canada.

For Immediate Release January 19, 2009 – Ottawa New Democrat Citizenship and Immigration Critic Olivia Chow calls on the Minister of Immigration and Minister of Public Safety to allow educational theorist, Bill Ayers entry into Canada. Bill Ayers was denied entry into Canada Monday where he was scheduled to speak on education reform at the [...]