Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to our witnesses for appearing before us today. I am finding your testimony to be very interesting.
I have a couple of statistics. Last year 43 million people visited Canada's immigration website. A record 265,000 people were accepted as immigrants into the country. This is a record number since the second world war, something that is going to be repeated again this year. Surely, law-abiding people should have the priority of coming here over those who would break our laws and commit crimes.
Ms. Sims referred to the Clinton Gayle case as a sensational case. I would agree with her. It is very sensational. Todd Baylis, at 24 years of age, was gunned down. He was murdered by a serial killer, a drug dealer. While on his duties as a police officer, he was trying to disrupt a crack cocaine drug deal. Clinton Gayle was still in Canada because he had appealed to the immigration appeal division, IAD.
Mr. Pagtakhan, do you agree that criminals like Clinton Gayle, serial criminals convicted of serious crimes like drug dealing, should have the right to an appeal?