All right.
So why is this really important? Because if you think back to the eighties, at that time there were refugee claimants coming via the U.S. to Canada from El Salvador, from Chile. At that time the U.S. said, “No, we do not believe there are any refugees who can possibly be generated from Chile or El Salvador or Guatemala or Honduras, because the governments there are fine. So what if there are death squads...?”
At that time, there was discussion on whether there should be a safe third country agreement. Canada decided not to sign such an agreement, and in fact decided not to deport anyone back to Chile, for example. Had we followed U.S. foreign policy, we would have been deporting people back to Chile. They sometimes travelled through the U.S., so we wouldn't have taken their applications as refugee claimants and many of them would have been sent back to the death squads. Many of them would have died.
This agreement was roundly condemned by the UNHCR. It was challenged in the courts. It was lost in the Federal Court. The federal government decided to appeal that decision. I have no doubt that it will be in front of the Supreme Court eventually. It will take a long time for the appeal to take place.
In the meantime, at the border, whether it's in Quebec or in Windsor, or in many other border countries, you have people coming in, flooding across the border--illegally, mind you, because they just have no opportunity to apply for refugee status outside Canada.
So my motion is in front of you. I hope committee members vote in favour of it.