Chair, I was actually rather shocked to see this amendment. I'll explain a couple of reasons why.
First, one of the issues the NDP and the Liberals in concert had argued was that the legislation we're proposing under Bill C-31 would somehow give a Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism unfettered access or unfettered power to make decisions, which of course it does not do.
That's exactly what this amendment does, if you read the first part of it, where it says “a designated foreign national whose identity has not been established or in respect of whom the minister has reasonable grounds to suspect”. That's “reasonable grounds to suspect”. So under this amendment we would basically give the minister the ability, virtually without exception, to rule on each one of these individuals who is attempting to come to Canada vis-à-vis asylum. He or she could designate.
It's too far-reaching in terms of the authority it actually gives the minister. I find it ironic that I'm suggesting here that the NDP is pretty much giving the Minister of Immigration.... I'm actually tempted to convince my colleagues in government to support this, because you basically give the minister uniform authority to make a decision on almost every single person who comes into the country, at his or her discretion. All you're establishing under this amendment is reasonable grounds and suspicion, which is much stronger in the clause the way we have it set out.
Furthermore, if you go to the final part, where it says that “in relation to the arrival in Canada of that foreign national, there has been, or will be, a contravention of subsection 117(1) for profit,”--now listen to this--“or for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization”.... Each one of these individuals or families that is on a ship that is coming to Canada will have been in association with a criminal organization. In fact, some of those criminals may actually be on the ship, so they would be deemed to be in association with them.
I would strongly recommend that the NDP withdraw this amendment. I'm happy to ask ministry officials to comment. What we're doing in terms of the five-year ban is absolutely nothing in comparison with what this amendment would actually do.
You want to talk about setting two tiers, Mr. Chairman. We will not be setting two tiers here. We'll be setting two cliffs, one where 99.5% of the refugee applications come through, and the other will be so far down from that in terms of equality that....
It's fascinating, after hearing everything the NDP has said on this issue, that they would reach to this extent to use words like “suspect” and “reasonable grounds” and “in association with a criminal organization”.
Perhaps I'll ask Ms. Irish to comment on the amendment, if she could.