Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 1st, 2012

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I don't want to discredit you as a witness here—you've brought testimony—but it strikes me as a bit strange that you wrote an article and you're kind of backing away from that article, or at least assuming that what you wrote wasn't quite what you wanted to get across.

[Dr. Joe Greenholtz]

No, the context of the article was that we were talking about Chinese signage and the adopting of Canadian values and things like that. What I said was that when we bring people to this country, we don't ask them those kinds of questions. But that doesn't mean we should be cultural relativists and accept every practice that every other country engages in.

What we should be doing is saving our heavy ammunition for cultural practices that are truly odious, such as honour killings. The point I was trying to make in the article was that we don't screen for cultural values. That doesn't mean we, as Canadians, have to abandon our right to make judgments and that we shouldn't exercise that right in the most serious of circumstances.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Greenholtz and Mr. Randev, we have come to the end. Thank you very much for your presentations.

On behalf of the committee, thank you for coming and talking to us.

[Dr. Joe Greenholtz]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ladies and gentlemen, next week we will continue on with the report, with witnesses. On the 13th, we will have estimates with the minister for an hour and the staff for an hour.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

The minister and staff. Who comes first?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

The minister will be first.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

The meeting is adjourned.