Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 26th, 2015

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

I'm sorry, but in this echo chamber of a room I may have missed the last part. Was the question about online applications for passports?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

There is a point of order. We'll stop the clock.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

I wanted to make sure that my colleague doesn't lose any time. If we can we allow her to start her question when the minister has his earpiece in, it would be very much appreciated.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

I have it on now.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Please proceed.

Do you want the question repeated?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

No. I think I'm okay now.

First, on passports generally, the funding goes up a little bit because the number of passports issued this year is anticipated to go down. That's partly because of the extraordinary popularity of our new 10-year e-passport in the last 18 to 24 months, which blew away all expectations. We were never going to sustain that level of interest. But on—

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

My question is about encryption and the protection of those who are applying.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

On encryption?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes. Is the data encrypted and what safeguards are there in terms of making sure that this is a secure system and privacy is protected?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

On the e-passport, a certain amount of data is there in electronic form in the chip, but it is the information that you see on page 3 of your passport, nothing more, nothing less. The record of when you have gone in and out of Canada or other countries is not in that chip and will not be in that chip, but the basic bio data—date of birth, place of issue of the passport, height and weight—as we have it on page 3 will be there.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

You referenced Bill S-7. We had the Canadian Bar Association here, and they said to scrap it because it jeopardizes women and children, that it exposes them to being shunned by family, and it exposes them to deportation and potentially to violence and criminality.

I'm wondering why you would proceed with Bill S-7 when there already are existing laws to address concerns expressed by the bill and the Canadian Bar Association has said to scrap it.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Well, if we had followed the advice of the Canadian Bar Association, we would never have reformed our citizenship program to make it faster and to ensure that we revoke the passports of people who have committed fraud. We would never have reformed our asylum system. We would have continued to give prominence in our asylum system to safe countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Mexico, to the exclusion of those countries where persecution and conflict are a day-to-day reality. If we had listened to the Canadian Bar Association, we would never have eliminated our backlogs in our economic programs.

They have been against every reform that we have undertaken. Perhaps many of them are card-carrying members of the Liberal Party and the NDP; I'm not sure. But—

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I see that you're calling into question the integrity of the Canadian Bar Association, and that wasn't my question, but let's move on. I want ask about something else.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Allow me to answer the question.

They have taken—

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Calling them “Liberals” is not answering the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Mathyssen—

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

It's an affront to this committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Mathyssen—

Don't stop the clock.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

That's fine, Mr. Chair—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Don't stop the clock.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

—but this is ludicrous. He's supposed to be a minister of the crown.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

He is a minister of the crown, and you have the obligation to be courteous to him. He's in the middle of an answer, and you have no right to interrupt him.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

I'm well aware of their position with regard to Bill S-7, but we take a contrary position. I'm delighted that our Liberal colleagues, after some dithering and back and forth, have decided to support us on Bill S-7.

Forced marriage is wrong. Polygamy leads to violence against women and girls. Early marriage is unacceptable in Canada. We know that it happens, unfortunately, both to the Canadian-born and to some newcomers. We are giving ourselves the tools in Bill S-7 to make sure that it is prevented.

For there not to have been a minimum age for marriage in Canada up until now, outside of the province of Quebec, and for it to have been to some extent based on the common law, which meant that age seven or eight was, legally speaking, an eligible age of marriage in Canada, was absolutely ludicrous. I don't think anyone in the Canadian public would support that position, whether or not the Canadian Bar Association agrees with them.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

There were others who didn't support this bill either.