Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 11th, 2014

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Here we have to be very careful.

You have cited today in this testimony refugee children as not being eligible for this assistance. That is absolutely false. There are also doctors, small groups of doctors in Toronto—

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Sorry, Mr. Minister, but—

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

—and elsewhere who insist on calling failed refugee claimants “refugees”. They do not have refugee status.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

I apologize, Mr. Minister, I only have one minute. I don't like you mischaracterizing my question and saying that I've cited something and I haven't. I said that in decreasing funding from immigrant aid, such as settlement—

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

I was citing Madam Blanchette-Lamothe. You're speaking on the same subject.

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

If we may come back to my question, in decreasing funding from immigrant aid, such as settlement and resettlement assistance, how will these new measures affect the children of families separated by these new immigration regulations?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

We have actually increased settlement funding by a factor of three over our time in government. We have reduced backlogs and processing times in every category of immigration. Under express entry, it will be six months, so families will be less separated, and citizenship is getting easier to obtain—

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

But—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

No. You know what? We're way over.

Go ahead.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

—because the average residency of someone who applies is already four years. The waiting time now is two to three years. When it goes down to one year, it will be only five years from the beginning of residency to receipt of citizenship. That's faster than now.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. McCallum.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Minister, I think you were saying that if a person has to wait longer to obtain citizenship, such as three years rather than two, or four rather than three, that raises the value of the citizenship. Correct?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

We think that those who have had a deeper experience of Canada, who've actually been physically present here for four years, will have a greater ability to participate fully in the civic life, political life, and economic life of Canada, which is what we expect from citizens.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

The implication of that is that native-born Canadians have zero experience in Canada, so upon being born will have no appreciation of the value of Canadian citizenship. I don't understand the logic of that.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

I'm not sure I follow you. You were asking about the residency requirement for awards of citizenship. That is not relevant to native-born Canadians.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

You're saying the longer the person waits, the more valuable the citizen. I'm saying people who are born here have citizenship automatically. They don't wait any time. It doesn't mean they're any less loyal as Canadians.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

It was your colleagues in the House of Commons today who were making a distinction between naturalized and native-born Canadians with regard to one aspect of Bill C-24. We make no such distinction. We expect and celebrate the fact that Canadians, whatever their origin, love this country; participate fully in its civic, political, economic, cultural life; and are very strong and very numerous in supporting us in increasing the residency requirement by one year, because you cannot develop, if you haven't lived here before, that connection to Canada, that sense of belonging, that knowledge of Canada, experience of Canada, except by being physically present here.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I would like to ask you a question based on The Globe and Mail article, an editorial saying “don't banish them”, where it quotes the charter of rights, saying:

“Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.” The principle is so fundamental that the Charter’s notwithstanding clause cannot be used to override this section.

They then say:

Stripping a citizen of citizenship is characteristic of a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet Union, which banished dissidents, including the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1974. It’s not a model for Canada to emulate.

I would like to ask you about that, but I have a bit of hesitation, because given your background, I don't believe that you believe your own answers. I believe that you would, as a normal person, agree with The Globe, and you would not agree with cutting basic health care to refugees. But I know in your current position you take a position that I don't believe you believe. I'm not sure it's worth asking, but I would ask one thing and that is whether the officials could provide the clerk with copies of the briefing binders that they and the minister have used today and if they could do that before the end of the month.

If there is time, minister, you may like to answer my question, but I'd like to ask that one first.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. McCallum, The Globe and Mail has failed to mention, and they often fail to provide relevant facts, that every country in NATO has these provisions. Many of them much stiffer than the ones we are proposing with regard to—

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I don't believe that, sir.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

You don't believe it. You would do well to be informed on these matters because they are relevant. We are allies and partners of all of these countries. We used to have these provisions under a Liberal government up until 1977—

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

My understanding is that the United States does not strip people of—

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

—when Pierre Trudeau threw those Liberal principles under the bus and decided that traitors, spies, and terrorists could retain their Canadian citizenship even when they're dual nationals.

We disagree. We disagree with The Globe and Mail. George Brown was a Liberal. It merged at one point with the Mail and Empire; that was a Conservative paper. We like the paper when that part of it speaks, but they were wrong in this as well.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

My understanding is that the U.S. does not strip its citizens—

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

They are doing it, in the hundreds every year.