Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We've always said and have always believed and reaffirmed that no country is completely free of persecution. We know that even here in Canada there are people who are.... To this end, I feel that it's very important that we remove the bar for application for permanent residency on the basis of humanitarian and compassionate grounds, except, of course, for circumstances where identification has not yet been established and where there are reasonable grounds to have security concerns about the applicant. The humanitarian and compassionate grounds are just an extra safeguard.
As my colleague Ms. Sims mentioned in the quote from legal expert Barbara Jackman, it's an extra safeguard that's there. We should not remove the bar for applications for permanent residency.
Mr. Chair, I feel it's extremely important that we allow due process, except for those circumstances that I mentioned earlier.
Thank you.
(Amendment negatived)