Kenney defends IRB appointments

Conservatives naming people who 'are just instinctively less receptive to refugee claims,' critic says

Only two people appointed to the Immigration and Refugee Board on the recommendation of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney have links to the Conservative party, Kenney said Tuesday.

He was responding to questions in the House of Commons about allegations by a former IRB chair, Peter Showler, that the board was no longer fully independent of the government. The Citizen reported Showler's comments Tuesday.

Under questioning by Don Davies, the NDP immigration critic, Kenney said he has recommended the appointment or reappointment of more than 140 IRB members during his time as minister.

But unlike the Liberals, who used the IRB as a "partisan dumping ground," Kenney said the Conservatives "have respected its role as an independent quasi-judicial organization."

While the Liberals appointed "failed campaign managers" and the spouses of Liberals MPs and senators to the IRB, Kenney said he was aware of only two people he had recommended who "have any association" with the Conservative party.

Ford accused of stacking public appointments

Three of the four citizens shortlisted for positions on the influential Toronto Police Services Board are Conservatives, a fact two of them stated on their applications.

Tory connections — including party fundraising, work on federal or provincial campaigns, or even candidacy — are cited by shortlisted applicants to many other city boards, including two up for spots on the Toronto Licensing Commission, said a source who saw the applications.

The civic appointments committee is sweeping clean some boards, including the one overseeing libraries, with all members denied a chance at reappointment. Mayor Rob Ford’s office has taken an unprecedented interest in the process, even — according to witnesses — handing council allies a list of the citizen applicants, marked up with notes, during the short-listing.