Okay, go ahead.
Evidence of meeting #64 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #64 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Chair, there are a lot of people who want to meet with the committee, be it on policy, be it on what they have faced—
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
We had individuals who came in front of this committee when we were hearing the people in Kingston Penitentiary. We travelled to the penitentiary twice. We met with the five or six individuals.
Not giving the people who are refugees and want to meet with this committee the due time, I think, is an injustice to them. While we spend—
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We have a list of 140 people. We can't reasonably meet with this many people or throw this open to individuals—
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
—were in Kingston Penitentiary, individuals whose lives certainly were affected—
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Thank you.
Chair, I think that giving these individuals.... Certainly the clerk can go through the list of people, and we can have the analysts talk to them and try to weed them out. And certainly we spent over two and a half or three months talking to individuals who were held in Kingston Penitentiary. We met with them twice. That was only for five individuals.
These people want to come. They want to voice their concerns. Not giving these people due justice will certainly not make us look credible.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
When we go to Toronto with this extra time, we're going to have individuals coming to us there as well. So there's going to be ample opportunity. I just worry about bogging this thing down with 140 or 150 individuals. What makes one more special than the other?
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Chair, this is why I recommended that we leave this alone until after the hearings.
Certainly this committee went out of its way to accommodate Mr. Siksay, to go to his Burnaby riding to listen to the concerns of his constituents. These are people who are living—
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Chair, I want to support taking out that reference. We have expanded the opportunities for people to appear before the committee on the question of Iraqi refugee policy by adding it to the list for cities all across the country. I think we can do that. If we need to make another visit to Toronto, we can determine that in the future.
I think we should get on with it. We've expanded the opportunities. We don't need this specific reference in there at this time. If we need to reconsider that, we can do it later.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Does Mr. Siksay suggest we're not interested in listening to the witnesses on the Iraq refugees? Is this what I'm hearing?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
I'd like to respond to that, Chair.
That's not at all what I said. As a matter of fact, I said that we have actually provided for increased possibilities. Because of my amendment in the previous discussion, we're extending the opportunities to hear from people on this subject. In fact we're making them much more extensive than what Mr. Karygiannis originally proposed.