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Chair of Senate Probe Says Immigration Report Coming Soon
posted (October 18, 2019)
The Senate Special Select Committee finished its Immigration Probe almost two years ago. But, after all those many, hundreds of hours of testimony - there's still no report.

A few weeks ago, Immigration Minister Hulse seemed to almost scoff at it. So, what's the holdup? That's what we asked the Chairman today. He says they are in process:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Special Select Committee
"We've gotten through the stage of the compilation of information, which took a lot of time. We've gotten to the point where we've gotten all the documentation. And so, I think it would have been in maybe April of this year that I started in earnest to work on drafting the report."

"We're coming up on 2 years, but it's a significant amount of time, and I understand the concern. But, I could only say that I am working on it. On the last occasion, I did give a timeline, which I was unable to keep, and I must apologize for that. The exigencies of my professional life, as well as my personal life and so on, have not allowed me to complete it. That's not to say that it won't completed, or that's not an excuse. But that is the reality, I am working on it. That's all I can say."

"The testimony is, I would estimate it at maybe about 200 or so hours, or more, and then after that, there's not only the testimony, but there are the deliberations - the meetings and so on of the Committee. So it's - I would say - about 300 hours, that's not including personal time, reading through the volumes. I have shown you the stack of papers that have taken up residence on my couch here in my Office. And it's a significant amount, and that's not even half. And that's not even counting the amount of time spent by the people who were transcribing the information into the electronic format."

We also asked Salazar whether the final report was being deliberately held back because of the effect it will have on major figures and backroom players in the UDP. Salazar said the drama is done:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Special Select Committee
"I've heard that, and I've heard some Opposition personalities when they get on the media, have made the very point. I would dismiss that out of hand as nonsense. And by nonsense, I mean that it makes absolutely no sense. We've had the hearings. Everything that came out, everything that was supposed to come out, all of the drama, whatever would have been embarrassing to a government, has come out in those hearings. There is nothing - we weren't in the back taking any juicy piece of evidence. The drama is done. So, for those people who are expecting drama, I must say that the report is going to be very boring. Because we've heard that in the public hearing. To say that it is the politically expedient thing to do to drag [out] the hearing or this report, as I said, that doesn't make any sense either. The politically expedient thing to do, If I was driven by political motive, would have been to hastily put that together, hurry up, and get it done and over with, so that it doesn't come out closer to elections. So, when we hear politicians speak of this sort of thing, we need to analyze whether it makes sense. It doesn't make any sense for the Government, for me to have some conspiracy between myself, the Prime Minister, or the United Democratic Party to delay this."

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