I move that Bill C-43 in clause 9 be amended by replacing lines 7 to 16 on page 3 with the following:
or who does not meet the requirements of this Act, and may, on request of a foreign national outside Canada, examine the circumstances concerning the foreign national and may grant the foreign national permanent resident status or an exemption from any applicable criteria or obligations of this Act if the Minister has reasonable grounds to believe that it.
Mr. Chair, we believe we need to address an issue here that gives us considerable concern. Both clauses 9 and 10 cause us great concern as they remove the possibility of humanitarian and compassionate consideration from the minister. The consequences of the best interests of an implicated child would no longer be considered.
In their brief to this committee, Amnesty International put their concern this way: “Eliminating the possibility of humanitarian relief for these types of people runs afoul of international law. Denying individuals access to this process might result in them being sent to torture...or persecution...”.
The Canadian Council for Refugees points out that these inadmissibility sections are extremely broad and catch people who have neither been charged with nor convicted of any crime and who represent no security threat or danger to the public.
New Democrats believe that the minister should not be relieved of the obligation to consider humanitarian and compassionate circumstances, including the best interests of children. Therefore, we are moving this amendment that restores the minister's ability to consider these factors with the caveat that the minister has reasonable grounds to believe it is justified.
We think this amendment will help dull one of the sharper and more mean-spirited edges of this bill and at the same time will constrain the minister's duty to consider humanitarian grounds generally.