The documents also show Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada struggled to work with the International AIDS Society as both tried to avoid a mass refusal of visas.
Canada issued 1,638 visas for the conference, and the documents show that at least 251 people, or about 15 per cent, claimed asylum after entering Canada. Ottawa rejected 83.5 per cent of visa applications by prospective conference attendees from Nepal; 55.8 per cent of those from Nigeria; 53.6 per cent from Pakistan and more than 40 per cent from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Ghana.
Six weeks ahead of the conference, the document said, organizers provided a list of 6,609 participants but did not include information that was important for identifying their visa applications, including birth dates and application numbers. About two weeks later, the department asked for a list of priority VIPs, and organizers provided 4,200 names. Eventually, the department got the number down to 150 priority attendees.
The department promised in the wake of the incident to insist that organizers provide more-complete lists of guests, complete with visa application numbers, two months ahead of events. It suggested they could also provide marginalization factors for immigration officers to consider, such as race, gender identity or physical ability.
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