The federal government argues new changes to Canada’s refugee claim system, effective Dec. 15, will make the process faster and fairer. But advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) claimants seeking refuge from sexual orientation- or gender identity-based persecution warn the changes will jeopardize the lives of legitimate claimants in this group. Sharalyn Jordan is an SFU education and criminology researcher. She can explain why refugee advocates believe the government’s reduction of the time — from 28 to 15 days — that claimants have to produce factual evidence of their alleged persecution disadvantages LGBT claimants the most. “The new system does not allow enough time for claimants, especially LGBT ones, to track down records from abroad, or to get ready to discuss the assaults, torture or imprisonment that they have survived. It does not allow time to assess and document the impacts of trauma,” says Jordan, a counselling psychologist who works with refugees.

Sharalyn Jordon, 778.881.2915, sjordan@sfu.ca