Evidence of meeting #44 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Just in the offer-up, perhaps there's a way to move a little quicker through this. It's up to the opposition whether they want to speak to this. But Liberal amendments 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 and NDP amendments 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, and 15.6 are all addressing an identical issue.
I can tell you the government is going to be voting against all those amendments. If we were to combine them and put them to a single vote, it might expedite the process.
NDP
Jinny Sims NDP Newton—North Delta, BC
We're certainly open to expediting the process. The wording is almost identical in every single one of them. If somebody wants to speak, let her speak the first time round and then we can do the vote.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Yes, we're comfortable with that. We recognize that they're all going to have the same eventual outcome.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
So the chair understands that we're going to be voting on all of the amendments for clause 26.
Let's do it one at a time. Can we do all of 26?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Then we're going to vote on 26.
All those in favour of all of the amendments on clause 26, even though they haven't been moved.
NDP
Rathika Sitsabaiesan NDP Scarborough—Rouge River, ON
Is it possible to go through them quickly so they're actually moved. I'm just thinking procedurally.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
I'll do whatever the committee wants, and that's reasonable.
You tried.
All those in favour of Liberal amendment 23?
(Amendment negatived)
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
All those in favour of Liberal amendment 24?
(Amendment negatived)
I know we're not following procedure, but it's the chairman's ruling that it fails, because they've all said it fails, and the committee knows what it's doing.
NDP 15.3 is a duplicate.
All those in favour of Liberal amendment 25?
(Amendment negatived)
NDP amendment 15.4 is a duplicate.
Conservative
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Yes, on clause 26. I'm moving an amendment because of the change that was made in clause 25. I guess I should wait until it's distributed.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I move that Bill C-31 in clause 26 be amended by adding after line 20 on page 14 the following:
(1.1) Despite subsection (1), on the conclusion of a review under subsection 57.1(1), the Immigration Division shall order the continued detention of the designated foreign national if it is satisfied that any of the grounds described in paragraphs 1(a) to (c) and (e) exist, and it may not consider any other factors.
Basically, what the amendment does, Chair, is clarify that the immigration division must order the continued detention of a foreign national if any of the factors in paragraphs 58(1) to (c) or (e) exist, and this amendment actually removes from consideration (d), which explicitly excludes designated foreign nationals.
NDP
Jinny Sims NDP Newton—North Delta, BC
Once again, we are pleased that the government has acknowledged that detention without legitimate reason is against the fundamental rights of refugee claimants.
We remain fundamentally opposed to detention, and we have expressed that a number of times, and to the designation of two-tiered refugees and of treating people who are coming to us from very, I would say, fragile situations as criminals when they arrive here. However, this amendment appears to be a corollary to the amendment in clause 25. We will be asking for immediate release unless the detention is continuing for these reasons, and I think those are stipulated: danger to public, flight risk, security threat, and the identity is not established.
That is just to let the government side know that we will be supporting this amendment, because once again we feel that the government has made a move in the right direction. The absolute right move to have been made in this case would have been to accept the fact that we needed to allow Bill C-11 to be operationalized, and at the other end, to have accepted some of our other recommendations, but as Mr. Dykstra pointed out, this committee stage is an important stage in the legislative process. It is a chance where we get to take time...and I wish we had more time to reflect on the testimony we heard and to review it, because I like to go over those things in detail, but I haven't had that time.
It behooves us, then, when the government makes a step in the direction to address some of the issues that have been raised, to acknowledge that action, and I'm doing so here. But once again, you do know that we are fundamentally opposed to detention of arrivals to our doorsteps except for identification and security reasons.
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Chair, I guess I would just highlight one aspect, and that is that from the Liberal Party's perspective, we do see there is value in certain situations for detention. This deals with some of those values, such as danger to the public, risk of a person to take flight or disappear, and issues in regard to identity. Those are good reasons for being able to detain someone.
Where we object, as we've already talked a great deal about, is to the mandatory detention without proper judicial overview, and we'll leave it at that.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
(Amendment agreed to)
(Clause 26 as amended agreed to on division)
(On clause 27)
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
I move that Bill C-31 in clause 27 be amended by replacing line 32 on page 14 with the following:
designated foreign national who is 18 years
(Amendment negatived)
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Yes, Chair, one more amendment, which is consistent with our amendments in sections 25 and 26. I believe everyone has a copy...or let me ask, through you, Chair, if everyone does? Okay.
Let me know, Chair, when I can go ahead and read.