Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 4th, 2014

[Lesley Soper]

In that sort of circumstance, the inadmissibility provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act would commence. If there was a criminal conviction against the individual, that would form the basis of rendering that individual inadmissible and they would then be subject to removal proceedings.

So it's a fairly straightforward process, although it takes time to execute. If there was a conviction for which there's a sentence to be served in Canada, that sentence would need to be served before we could proceed with removal.

[Devinder Shory, Conservative, Calgary Northeast, AB]

How long does removal take once the sentence has been completed? If someone is convicted and sentenced to two years less one day or whatever, then after that is that person released or sent back to the country they are from straight from the prison or jail?

[Geoffrey Leckey]

The latter is the answer. In those cases there would be an enforceable removal order in place. The individual would be obliged to serve their sentence in Canada, and on release they would be collected by our inland enforcement officers, and the removal would proceed immediately.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Mr. Opitz.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

Just on that, they'll be released but they would be picked up at the prison or the jail that they're being held at, just so they can't sink into the underground.

[Geoffrey Leckey]

Correct.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Then they go right onto an airplane and away they go. Right?

Okay, great.

Just quickly, the minimum age of consent for marriage is currently at 16. Do you think that should change? Would that be able to protect women better if that.... If you can't answer that—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Opitz, that was sort of the same question Mr. Leung asked.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's why I was just qualifying that—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Just let me finish, Mr. Opitz.

We've stopped the clock.

There's a certain leeway in political questions, but I think that's clearly a political question. I think that question should be directed more to the minister than to these officials.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's why I qualified it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

How do we compare to some of our peer countries on marriage fraud, enforced marriage, and other general abuses of spousal sponsorship program issues? Can you comment on that?

[Lesley Soper]

Certainly. We cooperate with other key immigrant-receiving countries to talk about what they experience in their jurisdictions and to see how we compare. It certainly informs some of the broader views on trends that we experience.

Certainly I don't think that what we're seeing is out of step with other major immigrant-receiving countries. It is quite consistent with where things are.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Do you know if any of our peer countries that you deal with and share information with have introduced regulation or legislation to combat some of those issues? Do you have any examples of any nations that do that?

[Lesley Soper]

I can't comment offhand.

[Supt Jean Cormier]

If I may, from a law enforcement perspective, in the U.K. they have introduced special legislation to help address some of those concerns. It is fairly new. I'm not well versed on it, so I would not be in a position to speak to what those details are. But it's an area that could be looked at.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's something for us to look into. Okay, that's great.

Speaking of the U.K.—you mentioned that—they implemented I think what they call the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007. They also have the Forced Marriage Unit, which raises awareness on the issue. You mentioned earlier somewhere in your testimony that we do make an effort to generate awareness on these issues. How do we do that?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

How do we do that in Canada? One of the agencies that we are consulting with is in the U.K. There is also a partnership to DFATD that is also involved in these consultations that are ongoing right now to raise awareness, not only domestically but internationally as well—typically the work that we do with our allied countries.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

How closely do we share information with peer countries?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

It's on a case-by-case basis depending on the need and under legislated authority. Obviously in cases such as the ones we are talking about here, certainly an exchange of information with peer countries would most likely be appropriate. We're talking about immigration matters.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Now, we also gain intelligence and do some intelligence-gathering from around the world. Are you in a position to say how that is generally accomplished, without getting into specifics?

[Supt Jean Cormier]

From a law enforcement perspective, certainly. Obviously there's a different method to gathering criminal intelligence. I'm not going to get into all the details of it. It is complex and there are many different avenues. But the sharing of criminal intelligence is done on a law enforcement to law enforcement basis, essentially, with countries that support similar legislation and human rights considerations.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

How much time do I still have?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Less than a minute.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I'm done, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Blanchette-Lamothe, please. Thank you.