GTEC @ 6900 Airport Road, Toronto
When people receive letters to attend at the GTEC (CBSA)
they panic and they think that it is over, that they will be removed
immediately. First, you need to be assured,
that this is not necessarily the case, despite the letter generally stating
that the your Removal Order is now effective and/or you are removal ready. There are remedies available to you under
these circumstances which shall be discussed in another blog. However, I want to discuss my experience and
give my two cents from an Articling
Student’s perspective and how to act to avoid problems.
First of all, be calm! Nothing should happen if you remain
calm, even under the worst circumstance and even in the worst circumstance
there are remedies which can be discussed once you get back to our office. Second, listen to me when I am trying to tell
you to be calm. You weren’t listening to me before and now you are panicking.
Be calm. Nothing will happen if you remain calm. When a client gets convoked to GTEC – now called EIOD or Enforcement and Intelligence Operations Division. Why? I don’t know. I don’t know what’s so intelligent about it – they feel uneasy to say the least. The client is unsure what will happen next: will they get yelled at profusely? Interrogated in a dark room under bright lights à la Hollywood? Arrested? Deported? Will they lose the ability to work and earn a livelihood? Will they be separated from their children? These are legitimate concerns and are not foreign to counsel. It’s important to always remember the first point and to be calm.
GTEC is not a nice place. There is tension in the air.
People who are convoked for an interview at let’s say 9 am, will not get seen
until 11, if they are lucky. Sometimes, you see mothers with their strollers
and families with their impatient young children, they must wait there and gaze
at CBSA officers on the other side of a thick plexiglass window. These officers
often do not look friendly: they walk with holstered guns and bullet proof
vests towards an annoyingly loud intercom to call other worried souls to their
interviews. Upon being called, one, two, or a whole family of grim-faced people
will stand up and drag their feet to the designated interview room.
The interview rooms are not nice places. I have seen things
that are not pleasant happening there, but remember they tend to happen only if
clients do not remain calm and there is a confrontation between the client and
the CBSA officer. I’ve seen interviewees
get rolled out on a stretcher by paramedics. The air has a certain noxious
smell that is difficult to describe. It
haunts me long after I’ve left the building. There are usually two stools to
sit on, but in some rooms there are three. There are always big yellow plaques
on the wall warning you that everything you do and say is being recorded on
audio and video. In these interview rooms, there is another plexiglass
window/wall separating you from the officer.
I describe GTEC for a reason. I don’t blame our clients for
not wanting to be there. If I were in their shoes I would not want to be there.
Officers sometime look like they do not want to be there. But the important
thing to remember is that the Client IS there, which means that they are not
running and hiding and that is a good thing.
This is the first step to having an agreeable interview at GTEC, making
it clear that the client is not going to run and hide.
The second most important thing is to answer questions
truthfully. Be calm, breath, take your time, and answer the questions
truthfully. First, listen to the question. Make sure you understand what the
question is, and answer it truthfully. Don’t give too many details, don’t give
an answer that is not relevant to the question. Don’t think that you can
outsmart the officer and give some weird smartalicky
answer. These things will not help you at all. Just be calm. Listen. Breathe.
And answer truthfully.
I insist on listening, breathing, and staying calm because
the opposite – being nervous, not breathing, getting excited, crying, not
answering, yelling – will result in the worst case scenario, which is an arrest
followed by detention. Please remember if the officer thinks you will panic and
run they can arrest you because they have the right to detain under the law if
they think you will not show up when convoked by CBSA or CIC. So always
remember my first point: be calm. Nothing will happen if you remain calm. Then
listen. Breathe. And answer truthfully.
Next, remember that counsel (I) am there to help and make
sure that the officer does not ask irrelevant questions, and does not act in a
way that would lead to a breach of the law, or in general that things do not
escalate or get complicated without reason. That is all I am there for. I am
not there to answer the questions for you. I am not there to trick the officer.
I am not there to give some brilliant speech that will leave the CBSA officer
flabbergasted. None of this can happen, and even if it could happen, it would
not help. I am there to make sure nothing gets out of hand. I am there to make
sure you remember to breath, and stay calm. I might gently put my hand on your
shoulder if I notice that you are becoming agitated. I will remind the officer
that you are nervous because of the nature of the interview itself, because the
client is being interviewed by a person with authority, and no other reason.
The only time I will answer questions is if they are technical, such as when
the officers ask questions such as whether or not you “made an application for
landing.”
I have done my job when I walk out with you from the
interview, calmly walking towards the parking lot.
Patrick Simon
Articling Student, 2013-2014
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