Mr. Speaker, by far the preferred way of approaching such cases is to initiate criminal prosecutions.
However, a couple of things have happened since 1987. First, the provisions in the Criminal Code that were added at about that time to provide for such prosecutions have been tested in court proceedings and interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Second, the nature, quality and availability of the evidence in such prosecutions has diminished in the years since 1987. When we came to office we came with a determination to do something about the moral imperative of removing such people from our midst.
We looked at the possibility of criminal prosecution and determined that in view of the interpretation placed on the provisions of the code by the Supreme Court of Canada in Finta and in view of the state of the evidence in these cases, the best approach for achieving the moral imperative in a practical way was to institute civil proceedings by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. That is the step we have taken.