Some members might be accused of not even sleeping sometimes, but....
I appreciate the comment by the parliamentary secretary. I would also point out that the parliamentary secretary also cannot present private members' bills. The point is similar, but I appreciate the point.
I wasn't here for all of the sittings in this committee, just for some, so I didn't get the benefit of all the proceedings, but the gist remains the same. The sanctity of the private members' bills needs to be protected. It bears mentioning that throughout history, private members' bills in this House of Commons and this Parliament have not always been as sacrosanct as they are now. It's only fairly recently that we determined for this particular process that we would ensure that all members could bring forward issues that are of some importance to them and to their constituents. Prior to the sixties, there essentially wasn't really much of a process at all for bringing forward private members' bills, and it's only through a lot of pressure from private members that a new process was developed and is reflected in what we have here today.
It's terribly important that the government not have full control of the agenda of the House of Commons, because the government sees things on a more global level, as a general rule, whereas individual members will have a much better appreciation of the needs of their constituents. Government ministers and parliamentary secretaries, I think, have an important role to play in this country, managing the affairs of this country. It's very important work indeed. But individual members also need to reflect the needs of their constituents, and that is the point of a private member's bill, to bring motions forward that otherwise would not have the opportunity to be debated. In the past we simply did not have a similar process in place. We had a process whereby members needed to convince the government itself to bring motions forward, or private members' bills forward, which would be fulsomely debated in the House of Commons. It was clearly a very difficult process and one that was very subjective.
We now have a very objective process whereby members have the opportunity to bring forward their individual motions. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, they can bring an unlimited number of motions or bills to the House of Commons, but they are limited to debating only one in a single cycle of precedence, which, largely speaking, reflects a four-year Parliament, if you will. Generally speaking, as we have just over 300 members of Parliament, it takes roughly a full four years for that full cycle of 300 members, less the ministers and the parliamentary secretaries, to have an opportunity to bring at least one motion forward, if ever we made it through all of the members bringing motions forward. So if we went through the entire order of precedence, then we would create a new lottery whereby there'd be a new order and all members of Parliament would again have an opportunity to bring forward motions on a new cycle. But that's fairly rare. In fact, I'm not sure if it's ever happened, but it certainly can happen if a Parliament is in any way longer than usual. If I'm not mistaken, a Parliament can last only five years, unless it's extended through perhaps an act of war, which might bring us back to the bill here, under certain circumstances.
Having an opportunity for members to bring forward their private members' bills is very important. They can bring bills or motions. The distinction isn't a very important one for most individuals, but it might be important to say here that a motion speaks to the will of the House of Commons, whereas a bill would actually amend law or create law as the case may be.
In this particular case, we are looking at a bill, and we are looking at amendments to the Citizenship Act.
We've seen a lot of bills change the Criminal Code in this Parliament, something that is fraught with danger, because the Criminal Code tends to be in the purview of government. It should often be the case—not necessarily exclusively, but predominantly, at the very least—that members of Parliament should ask the government to be amending the Criminal Code and not individual members through their private members' bills. But it is their right, and we respect that right. Again, all motions are deemed votable right from the get-go.
We need to be looking at a bill here that has been criticized significantly in this committee, through a number of interventions, through a number of witnesses who have a lot of experience in the field. Refugee lawyers especially, I think, had a number of interesting things to say.
I think one of the more interesting aspects was this. One of the witnesses brought up the point that if we create a stateless person, we no longer really have any control over their ability to be prosecuted for the very reason that we've determined them to be stateless.
If somebody has committed an act so grievous that we believe it's necessary to remove their citizenship, surely it would be better for us as a state to take on the responsibility of judging that person through due process than to remove their citizenship, which this bill seems to remove without the benefit of due process.
Again, I think it is very important that this bill has the opportunity to be fulsomely debated, not just at this committee but in the House itself. The amendment brings forward the opportunity for debate on this on a larger scale. I think Canadians as a whole would probably benefit from hearing this bill spoken of in the House of Commons itself, with a fulsome debate there as well. It's not enough to simply have it at committee level.
We're talking here about a fundamental element of Canadian society, our very citizenship within that society. That bears a very fulsome debate in the House of Commons. Again, when it comes to a private member's bill, that debate is simply not as fulsome as if it were a government bill.
In the past when we were creating bills that created or denied citizenship, I would be very hard pressed to be able to point out any significant precedent that said a couple of hours of debate would be enough in the House of Commons in order to determine whether we can actually remove somebody's citizenship, again, without a fulsome due process. It's very disturbing and very difficult for me to accept that it's through an almost automatic process.
Again, the bill does not speak to any other process. It simply says that if the person has been engaged in an act of war, we will remove their citizenship. It's very, very difficult wording. It's very, very difficult to understand the full impact and to detect any particular due process that would be afforded the individual.
We live in a society of laws. We don't live in a society where individuals, through possible evidence, possibly lack of evidence, through a process that is not transparent...that we would be removing one of their fundamental rights in Canada, which is to be a citizen of this country.
We applaud the initiative to be able to fast-track somebody's ability to become a Canadian citizen. The idea that somebody can work in this country and not be afforded the opportunity to become a citizen, we see a little bit too often. We saw that recently with the scandal with the Royal Bank bringing in temporary foreign workers. Those people would be working in this country, contributing to its wealth, contributing to its development, and we would be denying them the opportunity to be able to enjoy the rights and privileges that so many others who have made it to this country have been afforded.
Others were given that opportunity—namely, you come to Canada, you contribute to Canada, you want to lay roots in Canada, and we will afford you the opportunity to become a citizen.
It's laudable in this bill that we want to give 14 people that opportunity. I'm very happy that a number of individuals might be afforded that opportunity.
But what about the tens of thousands who would also like to be afforded that opportunity and who are simply waiting in line? They too are trying to contribute fulsomely to our country. I find it difficult to simply draw the line at people who join the Canadian Forces. Why not go further? Why not give the opportunity to so many others who are working here? Why not speak to those individuals who work for the Royal Bank of Canada, who are offering surely sound financial advice to Canadians? Why are they not being considered for fast-track Canadian citizenship?
Again, this probably would have been discussed had this been a government bill right from the get-go. But it's not; it's a private member's bill on a very finite and very restricted interpretation of who needs to be fast-tracked and who is going to be left to the side.
The bill simply lacks breadth. It lacks scope. It needs to look at where the rest of the backlog is in order for people who equally are contributing to society in so many different ways can benefit from being full citizens of this country.
It's not enough to be a resident of this country. I think the Americans put it very, very well when they said no taxation without representation. The idea that you're going to be taxed, you're going to pay into EI, and you're going to pay into various funds in this country without having the right to be able to draw from so many of them is difficult to accept.
For our neighbours to the south, their very statehood was based on that very notion, that they did not believe in creating tiers of citizenship. They wanted to be full citizens, with full rights over their lives, and full participants in their democracy.
Canada is a proud country with proud traditions of democracy, drawing from two systems in the history of democracy, the British Commonwealth system and the French civil law system. We're truly a unique country in so many ways, with a proud history of contributing to the growth of democracy across the world. And yet here we are, saying that there are going to be classes of opportunity of citizenship. That is troubling. That is very troubling indeed.
In the House of Commons, this bill will I hope benefit from significant improvement. At the very least, it will give Canadians the opportunity to hear more about what needs to be discussed in this bill, what needs to be perhaps improved in this bill.
The improvements that we have made to the bill at this point, or at least we are debating, in many ways are simply not enough. That the government would bring forward through its parliamentary secretary a series of amendments is troubling. It speaks to a government that simply doesn't want to benefit from the debates that are afforded it, the opportunities of debate that are afforded it.
I'm troubled not just by this bill, but just by the frequent and incessant—