Over-burdened refugee tribunal ditches legislated timelines for hearings

OTTAWA — Grappling with a historic level of asylum claims, the Immigration and Refugee Board appears to be officially giving up on following regulations dictating they must hold refugee hearings within a certain time.
Meeting the legislated time frame to hear claims has increasingly posed a challenge for the independent tribunal as the number of asylum seekers has risen steadily since 2014.
But after running out of internal solutions, a statement from the board Tuesday suggested they are s