Mr. Fadden, good morning, and welcome once again to the committee.
Your minister says that this thing works. Sir, I have two cases in front of the minister, and these are cases of people from mainland China. Families came here and claimed refugee status. One individual got married. She has a kid about five months old, and your department, sir, is looking to deport her. PRA said to her, “Get a passport for little Kevin, because we're going to deport you.” So here we've got a mother, Ms. Guo, who's breastfeeding a young individual, and they're about to deport her. The system does not work, sir. It's broken.
If the mother chooses not to take the young individual with her because the father might not sign the passport, where does that put the mother and child relationship? We are not looking at the child's interests, but what we're saying is “Go.” The officer from PRA said, “Get me the passport of the child quickly so we can deport you.”
Tell me, sir, how the system works. Tell me where the rights of this young individual are, a five-month-old Canadian. The father is a landed immigrant and he has a business and he has people he employs. How is this family going to be kept together and how is this family going to be looked upon when they're separated for a year?
I have another case where the mother is a Canadian citizen, she had a child, and after she had the child she had difficulties and was put into a situation where she has to be in a clinic that provides for her and her well-being. We're saying to the father that we're going to deport him. He has to make a choice of leaving his family and his wife in the hospital while he's in China. We said that maybe his wife can bring him back to Canada, but because she doesn't work and she is in a mental institution, a clinic, she won't be able to provide for him.
The system does not work.
So tell me, sir, what I am supposed to tell these two families?