Mr. Chair, thank you for allowing me to talk about this motion.
We in Canada have an independent foreign policy. It should be. We are a sovereign country. Our points of view and who we believe are or are not refugees really should be determined by our country and our Parliament, which is why the motion in front of you makes a lot of sense.
What is happening is that refugee claimants coming from places like Colombia or Haiti go past the U.S., and because they come through the U.S., because of this agreement, they are not allowed to claim refugee status in the States.
Some of these folks are desperate. They do not want to be deported back to their home country for one reason or another. They then come across the border in an illegal fashion and claim refugee status in Canada. The UNHCR has said that when we made this agreement.... The agreement was put together by the former Liberal government, and at that time they already said this was something that was not supportable. The Council for Refugees also said we must not have this agreement. In fact, the Federal Court also agreed with us and said that refugees really need to have the right for a proper hearing; that is why they deserve to be allowed a chance to submit an application outside of Canada in the States.
I put this matter in front of you hoping to avoid incurring a huge cost right now. The government is in the middle of appealing the Federal Court decision. Both sides are spending a lot of money on lawyers, and it is not a good way to proceed, so we really should support this motion and say that this agreement really should not proceed.