Mr. Chair, allow me to say that in 2005 the minister at the time made a policy change. The policy was clear. It said, let's allow Canadians who want to sponsor their spouse in Canada to apply in Canada, whether or not their spouse is in status or not in status--simple. That is what the policy said, and there was no objection at that time; there was no uproar. People in the communities thought it made sense to allow them to apply.
But what happened? What happened was that the department.... Allow me to read this: “In 2005, a policy change was made to extend the benefits of the SCPC”—the spouse or common law partners in Canada class, to be more precise—“to spouses and common law partners who were in Canada without status. The regulations were not updated to reflect this. Instead a new public policy was adopted under the humanitarian and compassionate grounds provision in the IRPA.”
So the intention was to allow all inland applicants to apply in Canada for their spouses. Instead of just doing it the clean way, what happened was that the department decided to change a little bit of policy, and what you have noticed is that all of these people are getting caught. This is happening, according to what the Library of Parliament gave to me, okay?