Queer groups recommend changes to refugee reform bill

From an Xtra.ca article:

As the Commons citizenship and immigration committee holds marathon sessions to consider Bill C-11, which would reform the refugee determination process in this country, queer groups have been invited to have their say.

Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, appeared at the committee by teleconference on May 25.

"We have a number of concerns about this bill," Kennedy told the committee. She said the proposed processing timelines will have a "dramatic negative impact" on queer refugee claimants.

"[Queer] claimants generally take longer to make a claim based on their sexual orientation," said Kennedy. "They are embarrassed and ashamed to describe problems associated with their sexual orientation, and they require longer to establish proof of their sexual orientation."