Procedure and House Affairs committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Salim Mansur and I am from the University of Western Ontario. I represent no one but myself. I was invited late yesterday afternoon, and on very short notice I came here. The thoughts and sentiments express

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I cannot imagine a scenario where a person who wanted to participate in public life through the act of voting wouldn't be able to provide a photo. Is the point you are raising that the photo should come from a source that has a stamp of the government on it, whatever level of g

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say to the members that none of these decisions can be made in a vacuum. We are living in a world where there are reverberations all around, and I hope the members of this committee and members of Parliament as a whole recognize that there's a huge ferment, a great turmoi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, very briefly. I concur with Madam Hogben that this is not a Muslim issue, but it becomes a Muslim issue if concessions are made for folks who are of a particular faith tradition and practising a particular custom. So it cannot be divorced as it is, so they come down to it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I just want to say thank you for having us here. I hope that at least the majority opinion that you have heard from us around this table will be taken note of and that you will take into consideration that though this is not a matter of religiosity, religions do int

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair and honourable members, many thanks for inviting me to share my thoughts with the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. I appear before you as a common citizen deeply apprehensive and concerned about the drift of our country as it changes due to the rate

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I believe the number that we have.... Because of the limitation of time, I was not getting into numbers here, but I understand it's somewhere around about 300,000, if you take into question those who are coming in as legal immigrants, who had gone through the process, inclu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So that's the number, and what I'm suggesting is that it is not only such an unprecedented number; it raises the whole problem of absorptive capacity. The absorptive capacity has not only to do with the economic situation, particularly in the time period we've been living through

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, it is as I understand it as a practising Muslim and coming from the background of an Islamic society.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I didn't say that, and that is not what you asked me. You asked me how I think, and that's what I was ready to answer. That's the question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The cultural context from which the population is coming is a cultural context that is in many ways antithetical to the values that represent a liberal democracy such as ours or those in western Europe. The overarching issue is that these numbers are challenging our own system, o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You are speaking to one of them sitting right across from you, sir. I don't know whether you know the other side from where the demand comes, but I know it from the other side. That's why I said in my conclusion that I know what the opposite is and why I so greatly value what is

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I say it because it is a question of where we have gone in the last 40 years. In 2011 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the official multiculturalism policy. I've written a book about it. I would invite you to read that book, sir.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Maybe not, but that's what liberal democracy is all about.