Thank you very much, and thank you for having us.
I will speak for the first five minutes, and then Barb Jackman will speak for the second five minutes.
On Bill C-43,, the faster removal of foreign criminals act, let me start by saying that if this legislation was truly about removing foreign criminals, I would not be here today. The fact is that this legislation has very little to do with removing foreign criminals from Canada and has everything to do with taking away appeal rights and attacking permanent residents of Canada; yes, permanent residents of Canada, many who have lived here for a long time and have all of their family in Canada. These are not foreign criminals.
In addition, the criminality that this bill addresses can be relatively minor in nature to trigger the catastrophic result of permanently separating a permanent resident of Canada from their family in Canada, including being separated from their spouses and children indefinitely.
I will address the immigration appeal division aspect of it, i.e., taking away appeal rights from permanent residents of Canada. Barb Jackman will address restricting access to humanitarian and compassionate grounds, misrepresentation bars, and additional matters.
Bill C-43 takes away all appeal rights for permanent residents of Canada if convicted in Canada with quite a minor sentence, or even if that permanent resident is abroad and is convicted of, or has committed, an act outside Canada which, if done in Canada, would have a sentence of 10 years. This would include such offences as fraud, personation—that means using somebody else's identification—theft over, domestic matters. It does not matter if there's a conviction or what the actual sentence is abroad. A fine could trigger this section, and on its own, could make a permanent resident indeterminately separated from his family.
Let me use the example of someone who has come to Canada as a child and is now 50 years old. They are married, have children, grandchildren, and a home in Canada, and are working and supporting their family. They have never had any trouble with the law, but never applied for their Canadian citizenship. There are many people in Canada under those circumstances: Americans, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese. They just never became Canadians, although they came to Canada when they were small children.
On one occasion, this person makes a bad choice and gets into a fight, or drives dangerously, or commits theft under $5,000. If they get a sentence, even a conditional sentence of six months, no jail time is served, and they get a fine, or not even a fine, and they plead guilty—because it makes sense in terms of dealing with the criminal justice system and they would be advised to do so by most criminal lawyers. Approximately 80% of all criminal matters are pleaded to; otherwise, the system would grind to a halt. This has been given to me by the Criminal Lawyers' Association. This person would be deported from Canada without any right of appeal to the immigration appeal division, notwithstanding they have basically spent their entire life in Canada, and have no connections and sometimes don't even speak the language in their home country.
What the bill does is it takes away all appeal rights for this person. The immigration appeal division does not necessarily have to let the person stay in Canada, but at least it gives them a chance to consider all the circumstances of this person's case, such as how long they've been in Canada, the seriousness of the offence, if there's a pattern of criminality, family in Canada, what rehabilitation they've made. Then the immigration appeal division makes a fair and balanced decision.
Normally, in a case like the one I just described, the person would be allowed to stay in Canada and would be put on a stay of removal, basically probation for a certain period of time, usually three years to five years. If they break the law in any way, they would be deported automatically. I would hope and think that most Canadians would support this type of result.
I'm also going to provide for you samples of cases where people have obtained sentences of six months or more from the immigration appeal division. In many cases, the person has not been allowed to stay, and in the others the person has been allowed to stay. What I hope you will take the time to do is to read the types of cases and the types of people who are involved in these situations, who find themselves on the wrong side of the law. It may be a one-off situation of fraud and a situation where all of the person's family is in Canada. I don't think anybody would reasonably think that a person in those circumstances should be deported indeterminately and indefinitely from all their family in Canada.
I'll leave this with the clerk for you to look through.