Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank everyone who's here today for making this very emotional presentation, and for the obvious support of the community. I am new to this file and new to this committee, so I don't have a history with this.
To Mr. Mahoney, I understand that there are rules and procedures through which people can gain access to Canada, but I also understand that the minister has the discretion to grant access to anyone on a discretionary basis. If there was a desire to deal with this expeditiously, I don't understand why that wasn't used. I think we've had three immigration ministers in the last two years. Actually, I think Minister Solberg is the fourth.
I'm just curious, is there a reason why, to your knowledge, none of the other immigration ministers just used their authority to make a discretionary option that wouldn't set a precedent or require interpretation of policy?