Thank you very much.
I want to thank our three presenters for putting a very human face on this piece of legislation, and for painting a picture of the impact of the human element for Canadians.
My colleagues across the table and I disagree on many things, but there are some things we do agree on. We all want to make sure that non-citizens who commit serious and often violent crimes are removed from Canada as quickly as possible. I don't think we have any disagreement on that.
That being said, New Democrats are very concerned that this bill concentrates even more arbitrary power into the hands of the minister. Even more so, we worry this legislation doesn't get to the heart of the problem of violent offenders who are able to remain in Canada for years, despite deportation orders.
For example, we've heard over and over again from witnesses, as well as Conservative members, about the case of Clinton Gayle, who brutally murdered Constable Todd Baylis of the Toronto Police Service. We now know that serious administrative errors led to the delay in removing this serious criminal. In fact, an appeal of his deportation order failed, but he was not removed because the immigration department lost his files. The immigration department even settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with the Toronto Police Service because of the errors it made.
Let me be clear. It was not because the legislative tools weren't available to deport Mr. Gayle, but because the system failed. We can't keep using that case as an excuse to bring these overwhelming powers into the hands of the state.
Don't just take my word for it. During a federal inquiry into the Clinton Gayle case, an associate deputy minister was quoted as saying, “Quite simply, the system failed.” He then explained that the department's priority at the time was to target unsuccessful refugee claimants who were on the run rather than criminals, because that way the deportation numbers were higher. It's games.
The question is fairly straightforward. Can the three of you talk about how the current system could be improved without eliminating the right to due process that is being proposed in this bill?