the 1954 Convention.”15 The report further illustrates that Canada, as a State Party to other international human rights instruments, has an obligation to address identified legal gaps in order to protect the rights of stateless persons. These UNHCR Canada reports all found that data collection was essential to understanding the full scope of the problem of statelessness in Canada. In 2003, Brouwer found that practices with respect to data collection on stateless persons in Canada, on the parts of Statistics Canada (StatsCan), Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), were poor and in need of improvement in many areas. In 2012, Brouwer outlined areas where these Canadian government agencies had improved their data collection practices, and where gaps in data collection remained. He made several recommendations to the four agencies and called for additional research into this phenomenon.16 Erauw echoed Brouwer's call for more research into statelessness in Canada. He observed that there is little reliable research on stateless persons in Canada, their demographic profile, their status and their legal histories. Substantial quantitative and qualitative research is required to know more of their experiences and whether the Canadian legal framework is compatible with the 1954 Convention and Canada’s international human rights obligations.17 Furthermore, since there is no “stateless person status” or formal statelessness determination procedure in Canada, there is little information on the extent of statelessness in Canada. This includes a lack of information on how many people are stateless, who is stateless, how foreign nationals are identified as stateless, and how government officials are trained to identify foreign nationals as stateless. [ ... ] Without reliable information on the extent of statelessness in Canada it is easy for Canada to ignore a potentially serious policy issue by dismissing it as irrelevant and insignificant.18 Understanding the full extent of this phenomenon requires collecting and reporting data on the part of governments and civil society alike. This is necessary in order to ascertain who is stateless in Canada and to work to protect those who are vulnerable. It is also imperative to adhere to international norms, and engage in national solutions that can be used as models by other countries looking to improve their practices on statelessness. It is essential that Canadian immigration and border security agencies accurately report on how many stateless people in Canada are being protected, detained, and/or prepared for removal and it is equally important that the Canadian public have access to this data so as to take part in designing appropriate responses. This study seeks to understand where improvements have been made in these areas since the 2012 UNHCR Canada report, and where gaps still remain. UNHCR recommended in 2012, that Following the improvement in the collection of statistics since 2003, additional work should be undertaken by government agencies to improve their data management and reporting systems […] to ensure that comprehensive, accurate 15 Erauw 2015, 115 Brouwer 2012, 62 17 Erauw 2015, 6 18 Erauw 2015, 9 16 4