Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 17th, 2008

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Add “and other methodology to expedite foreign credential recognition”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You've all heard the amendment.

(Amendment negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The question is on the main motion.

(Motion negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Moving along to the second motion from Mr. Karygiannis:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this Committee hear officials from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and the Canadian Border Services Agency, and other relevant witnesses, to enquire into processing times related to immigration from Sri Lanka.

Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Chair, the processing times from Sri Lanka, especially for spouses and families, FC1 and FC2, which are parental and spousal applications, take anywhere from two to three years for spouses and anywhere from six to ten years for other family class applicants. The people are asked to go back and do secondary enhanced background checks, and then more and more background checks.

I brought this to the attention of the minister a couple of times. She had promised to take a look at it. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Therefore, because of the length of time it has taken, especially in that part of the world and especially with the trouble that is happening over there and not getting clear answers from the department, I put this forward for us to hear from officials.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is there any further discussion on Mr. Karygiannis' motion?

Seeing none, I will call for a vote.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The next motion from Mr. Karygiannis reads:

That, in the opinion of the Committee, the government should deport no one to Sri Lanka until a safe environment exists there, and that it should expedite any family class sponsorships from the danger zone; that the Committee adopt these recommendations as a report to the House and that, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), the Chair present it to the House.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, what is happening is similar to the previous motion we just passed. That area is one where hostilities do exist. We have been deporting people back to Sri Lanka who find themselves in severe danger. Until we can clearly signify that these people, when they are deported back, will not come into a danger zone—the same thing as not deporting anybody back to Afghanistan, Iraq, or other areas of trouble—I think it only merits that we should support this thing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. St-Cyr, and Mr. Komarnicki.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I agree with the motion. But I would like to move an amendment to the first part. The present text reads: "...the government should deport no one to Sri Lanka until..." At the moment, it says: "a safe environment exists there". I would change that to read "the committee has studied the issue".

I would like it to be more a request for a moratorium. By passing the preceding motion, we are now going to study the issue. I think it is important that we deport no one to Sri Lanka until the study has been done. What I do not like about the present text is that it makes assumptions about the outcome of our study. The amendment makes it clear that we are making no assumptions about the outcome of the study, but that we do not want the government to deport anyone to Sri Lanka until we have finished it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Does everyone understand the amendment? Mr. St-Cyr is saying there should be added, after “Sri Lanka”, in the second line, “until the committee has studied the issue”.

Before we go to discussion on the amendment, I had Mr. Komarnicki stand up for discussion on the motion. Do you want to proceed, or do you want to go...?

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I can go right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

The same applies to both.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

For discussion on the amendment, we'll go to Mr. Komarnicki.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act has two objectives. One is the fact that deportees have the benefit of access to all applicable CIC programs, such as the pre-removal risk assessment.

The purpose of the pre-removal risk assessment is specifically to deal with the issue of deportation to a country. We have a process in place, and of course there is the humanitarian and compassionate review of their personal situation, as well as access to appeals and judicial reviews if an application is applicable. So we have a process in place where people can apply.

You would presume that the process functions as it ought to and takes into account the kinds of things that have been raised by this member and other members in their decision-making. It would seem to us sitting here, without having heard the facts or any of the individual cases, that to say it doesn't matter what kinds of systems you have in place, or the hearings that take place, we're saying you're not going to do that.... I think that's just wrong in principle.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Is that what we're going to study?

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

We ought not to take that upon ourselves, and not without hearing any evidence whatsoever before us. It just seems like it's not the proper way to proceed, so I would oppose the amendment, and the motion in the main because it has the same flaw in it.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would say put the question to the amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

You've heard the amendment, which came from Mr. St-Cyr, that we would insert “until the committee has studied the issue”.

(Amendment agreed to)

(Motion agreed to)

We now have the last motion from Mr. Karygiannis:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this Committee hear the respective Ministers and officials from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and the Canadian Border Services Agency, and other relevant witnesses, to enquire into ever increasing processing times related to immigration time lines from posts around the world, and that, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), any findings and recommendations based thereon be reported to the House before any amendment is made to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

That's self-explanatory.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Karygiannis.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

It's self-evident, Chair, and I would move that we--

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Discussion on the motion?

Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to try to amend it, and also add an extra clause:

and study the recent contract with VFS company.