I think your question really centres on the security issue with regard to adopting children. The Canadian Bar Association certainly commends the department for coming out with a policy that does not do that. I think the purpose of this bill is to put everyone on an equal footing.
Unfortunately, we have natural-born children of Canadian citizens. They may have been born in Romania, as an example, lived there for 30 years, and got into trouble in Romania. They have the absolute right to come back to Canada. This bill is trying to give an equal footing to an adopted child who got into trouble, in the same type of situation, to be permitted to come to Canada.
So I don't think the philosophy or the policy here, which is to put everyone on neutral ground and treat them as in the McKenna case, which we heard about, would be able to stand. As we heard from a previous witness, if this is not a true child-parent relationship, and it was done for the purpose of bringing a person to Canada, I think there are enough safeguards in the present legislation and in this bill to stop it.
We would not want to see a distinction between someone who is over 18 and someone who is under 18. As far as we are concerned, and as you've heard today from the department, the law requires that everyone be treated the same.