Thank you.
My first amendment, Mr. Chair, is an attempt to improve the definition for definitional purposes. The committee will remember the evidence and testimony of the Canadian Bar Association. Their concern was that the way this definition of polygamy has been drafted, it could, rather than protect women, go against Canada's obligation to protect the human rights of all women, particularly those who have been forced or coerced to comply with certain cultural practices against their will.
The CBA concluded that the “inadmissibility provisions could also harm children of polygamous unions, by removing their parent(s) from Canada, removing the children themselves from Canada, and infringing their rights under international law.”
The amendment proposed here by the Green Party is to make sure that women who are forced into polygamous marriages are not punished by exempting them from the application of this ground for inadmissibility.