Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for appearing before us today.
I found your testimony to be very interesting as I did the testimony of the previous witnesses, but I didn't have a chance to question them.
There seems to be one common theme coming out of the testimony and responses that we have heard from you and previous witnesses, which is that clearly, no one wants foreign criminals walking our streets. I think it was Ms. Seligman, a previous witness, who said that she's a mother too and she doesn't want a criminal in her neighbourhood. People don't want those folks in their area and around their children.
I was a little taken aback with my colleague, Ms. Sims, when she referred to using Clinton Gayle as an excuse. I believe the family of Todd Baylis would take some exception to that as well. Todd Baylis was a police officer, 24 years of age, who was gunned down in his prime by a serial criminal named Clinton Gayle, while he was trying to disrupt a crack cocaine drug deal. Gayle was still in Canada because he had appealed to the IAD. Let's focus a little on the victim's side of the equation. We're talking about a known criminal, not a two-year-old who's here at 30.
By the way, Mr. Lamoureux commented that the minister is labelling permanent residents as foreigners. Clearly, there is a difference between a permanent resident and a Canadian citizen. If you have lived here the better part of your life, and you're not a Canadian citizen, you're still a citizen of another nation. That makes you a foreigner by definition.
Let's just focus on criminals like Clinton Gayle. Do you agree with the ability of criminals like him to be able to appeal their deportation even though they have been convicted of serious crimes several times over?
I'll start with you, Mr. Collacott.