I would like to ask you a question based on The Globe and Mail article, an editorial saying “don't banish them”, where it quotes the charter of rights, saying:
“Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.” The principle is so fundamental that the Charter’s notwithstanding clause cannot be used to override this section.
They then say:
Stripping a citizen of citizenship is characteristic of a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet Union, which banished dissidents, including the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1974. It’s not a model for Canada to emulate.
I would like to ask you about that, but I have a bit of hesitation, because given your background, I don't believe that you believe your own answers. I believe that you would, as a normal person, agree with The Globe, and you would not agree with cutting basic health care to refugees. But I know in your current position you take a position that I don't believe you believe. I'm not sure it's worth asking, but I would ask one thing and that is whether the officials could provide the clerk with copies of the briefing binders that they and the minister have used today and if they could do that before the end of the month.
If there is time, minister, you may like to answer my question, but I'd like to ask that one first.