I move That Bill C-43 in clause 16 be amended by replacing line 39 on page 4 with the following:
misrepresentation, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that the misrepresentation was unintentional, for a period of five years.
As committee members know, clause 16 increases the penalty for inadmissibility for misrepresentation from two to five years and precludes a foreign national from applying for permanent residency status in that period. It would therefore also limit family sponsorship.
It's in the interest of working with government to get this legislation through and fix it that we are moving this amendment, specifically to make an exemption for those who might have entered data unintentionally.
Many witnesses have said that five years is overly punitive, especially where misrepresentation was made by an inadvertent error. The NDP members on this committee share this concern. The Canadian Council for Refugees, in their submission to us, points out that a five-year inadmissibility is excessively harsh in cases of minor infractions when a person was acting under some form of duress.
They offered two of many examples where this would be an unfair punishment. Number one is a woman who didn't declare a husband or child because of social and family pressures. Number two is an applicant who was not personally responsible for the misrepresentation because of an unscrupulous agent or even a family member who filled out the forms for them.
It is this second case I find particularly troubling. I believe that we must make sure to punish those who are criminally misrepresenting themselves and not victims of shady consultants.
While the CCR recommends that we simply delete this clause, we are proposing a very moderate alternative. Our amendment creates an exception for permanent residents and foreign nationals who are inadmissible for misrepresentation that is demonstrably unintentional. We think that this strikes the right balance.
We urge committee members to support this amendment to mitigate clause 16 from unintended consequences.