Okay, thank you.
I move that Bill C-43 in clause 16 be amended by replacing line 39 on page 4 with the following: "unintentional misrepresentation for a period of two years, or for a period of five years if the misrepresentation is found to be clearly fraudulent,"
I appreciate we have had a fairly lengthy discussion on this issue already, Mr. Chairperson, but I just wanted to use this amendment as an opportunity to distinguish the difference between intentional and unintentional misrepresentation, and that even when you look at unintentional misrepresentation, you could further break it down into two. That is the reason I used the example earlier.
There is unintentional misrepresentation that occurs, for example, with an individual who might say he is coming as a couple with a couple of children, but the father might have had another child outside of wedlock whom he's not prepared to declare for what could be obvious reasons. There could be an individual who comes as part of a family, an older child, now a young adult, who got married, came to Canada. The daughter told mom and dad that just before they left she had married her boyfriend, or the son had married his girlfriend. The problems and issues surrounding that are quite significant. There are reasons, and as a compassionate society, we need to recognize those types of reasons.
The other example I gave earlier was something I had run into. In that case there was a college of sorts providing a program at what would have been the equivalent to a community facility. An individual took a course at that facility in the 1990s and was given a certificate for taking the course. When filling out the application the individual, being completely honest, submitted the certificate along with many other certificates. Had he not submitted the certificate, he still would have qualified under the package, but because he was told to submit everything, that's what he did. Ultimately it ended up slowing down the process for over two years because they could not locate that facility. I wasn't too sure with regard to what degree common sense was being used. That is why I think it's important.
Mr. Chairperson, I know there are a number of ideas for agenda items going forward for our committee. Number one on the list is the health care cuts for the refugee, and I won't change that. Number two is the provincial nominee. I would suggest to you that number three could be the whole issue of misrepresentation. If we look at the amendments that are being presented, I think there would be a good, healthy debate on that issue. I can tell you that it's not only immigrants or potential immigrants who might fall victim to misrepresentation, but I've also seen government policies that encourage misrepresentation. I would love to have that sort of discussion at the committee level.
Having said that, I trust that we will have a recorded vote on this amendment.
That's it for my comments.