Thank you.
The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration speaks at great length on the independence of the administrative tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board, or IRB, and how the decision-makers will make independent and impartial decisions. However, Bill C-31 raises doubts about that.
For instance, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration justifies his discretionary power to decide which countries are designated countries of origin by saying that he must be able to respond quickly to avoid a wave of fraudulent refugee claimants. He justifies this measure by saying that he wants to let Hungarians, for example, come to Canada without a visa and avoid having people make claims for refugee protection in Canada.
So it's the minister himself who decides in advance what represents a wave of fraudulent claimants. So it isn't true that Bill C-31 gives the administrative tribunal full independence in the decision-making process. The minister himself said the opposite in his testimony before this committee.
As for people who will be considered part of an irregular arrival, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration justifies his discretionary power and detention for one year by the fact that Canada cannot let in people who have not obtained a visa before they arrive in the country. He continues to scare us with the idea that these people will not have identity documents, that their identity will have to be established before they can be released and that, lastly, people will not have recourse to automatic release as an alternative to detention. In fact, the current legislation justly sets out a detention review mechanism prior to release.
The minister went on in his testimony to explain that these people will pay smugglers to get to Canada and that the smugglers are dangerous criminals who endanger the lives of the passengers. Once again, the minister is trying to influence the fate of the refugee claimant through these punitive and discriminatory measures.
The minister is inconsistent when he explains that individuals who arrive irregularly need to be detained for security reasons for one year—