The government's into some good old immigrant-bashing. As a former refugee, I know what that means and I understand it. I think there are advantages to be had in the province of Quebec, where the ADQ almost came to power, and then the reasonable accommodation debate.... They're trying to plug into that. I think they're having some success, and that's why they're pushing it.
In terms of his saying that it has to be charter-compliant, well, the security certificate was not charter-compliant for 25 years, and it unduly took away people's rights. Today we hear we're going to have some kind of apology for Komagata Maru, just like there was for the Chinese head tax.
What bothers me is we don't seem to learn from history very well. We're bringing in temporary foreign workers. We brought the Chinese in during the 1880s to build the railway. They were not allowed to bring their families. These temporary foreign workers aren't allowed to bring their families. I ask myself, what kind of Canada do I want? Do I want a Canada where people come here with their families and help build Canada for the long term? Or do we bring in people who, very much like the Chinese when they were brought in during the 1880s, can be exploited? They could be made to work for less and the families could be barred. It was a horrific part of history. But I see analogies between that.
It seems to me that if you're going to build the country, then we want to employ people as immigrants, bring them here as immigrants, bring them here with their families.
I keep reading about all the problems they're having in Fort McMurray, Alberta, because people are up there without their families. They have drug problems, they have alcohol problems, and all sorts of other problems, and this really bothers me. The point system should allow tradespeople in. It should allow labourers in. If you're good enough to work in this country, then we shouldn't use you and look upon you as redundant and try to get rid of you. These are human beings we're dealing with.
I just wonder, Mr. Tan and Roberto, if you could make a comment on that.