Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 12th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Tabbara, you have five minutes.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being here.

Minister, you appeared in the committee on February 23, and I congratulated you for restoring the interim federal health program for refugees. I just want to thank you once again for restoring that.

Then I asked you when you would reintroduce the legislation to repeal Bill C-24, and you responded, “In the coming days, and not very many”. Then two days later, you introduced Bill C-6, so again I want to congratulate you for that.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much. It was my pleasure.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I have a couple of concerns.

There are a number of things about the act that we might want to look into. Some are within the scope of this legislation and some are better not in it and could be subject to amendments. The concern I want to raise is whether your department talked about second-generation Canadians born abroad and how maybe they can have a pathway to citizenship.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

There is nothing in this bill that talks about that. There is reference to lost Canadians. Perhaps you could elaborate on your point.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I think it was under Bill...maybe I have the wrong one. I'll just go on to my second question, then.

My second question is that there is a constituent who came.... Again this will be out of the scope here I think.

My third question.... Here, I'll ask this one. I got an email from an engineer in my riding who became a permanent resident in 2013, and then went back to the U.K. for a few months to finish his university degree, and moved to Canada permanently in 2014. He is so eager to apply for citizenship as soon as possible after Bill C-6 becomes law. As mentioned earlier, my office has received a number of emails.

Minister, can you have an estimate of the length of time that it might take to bring Bill C-6, to introduce the implementation once it's enacted?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We obviously would like to get Bill C-6 through as quickly as possible, subject to the will of Parliament. The first step involves your committee and you will have witnesses. I don't know exactly when you will get it back to the House of Commons, but I'm hoping that won't take too long. Then it goes to the Senate and the Senate is a little bit more difficult to predict, given that we don't have a majority in the Senate but we do in the House. We will then have to speak to senators and hope that they will pass the bill, and that's the next stage. Then after that, it will receive royal assent and different aspects of the bill will be implemented at different speeds.

I think in terms of the issue of time spent in the country, there will be some delay in implementing the bill in order to prevent the buildup in backlogs resulting from this change.

Is that correct? Yes.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I have another question, and I think it's in the scope. I think it relates to this bill and just correct me if I'm wrong.

I had another constituent come in. He's an individual who works overseas and his family is all Canadian here. His wife and his children are Canadian. He's travelling quite often overseas and he's unable to stay within Canada for the time frame to become a citizen. Is there any way that we can look at individuals maybe so that if they're working for a Canadian organization or an academic institution they can still have a pathway to citizenship?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We do require physical presence in Canada. We've reduced that requirement in terms of the number of years, but we are concerned that people who become citizens be true citizens and not citizens of convenience. We have retained that, although I know in some cases it does cause hardship. This is something that we have retained, while at the same time shortening the number of years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Saroya, you have five minutes, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and the panel.

Mr. Minister, the question from David was about the teen who lives in the country; he's 18 years old, or 17 years old, or 16 years old. Before he applies for citizenship, obviously he's lived here three-plus years, or four years. What do you think of the person who does go to school and doesn't have the knowledge of either one of the languages? Something is wrong with this situation.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Look, I'm not concerned about the 16-year-old. I think most 16-year-olds can speak English or French. I think if they don't, they will learn it at school. They will learn it from their friends. They will take lessons sometimes provided by the government for language.

I think the number of 16-year-olds who don't learn to speak good English or French is limited. The case at the older end of the age spectrum may be more serious. It would be very unusual for a young person not to learn English or French, I would say.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Why would we change, if this is the case?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I think we often have rules applied to the age of majority. We thought it was just fine the way it had been, so we were changing it back to the way it was. The cut-off age of 18 is often the case, because that's the age at which a person is judged to be an adult.

I don't think it is terribly important one way or the other, because I do believe that if you're a 16-year-old or a 15-year-old, one thing you're going to do is learn English or French, if you don't know it already.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

My next question, Mr. Minister, is in regard to the revoking of citizenship.

Through Bill C-24, convicted terrorist Zakaria Amara lost his Canadian citizenship. Is that correct, Bill C-24?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

What's the question?

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Through Bill C-24, convicted terrorist Zakaria Amara lost his Canadian citizenship. Is that correct?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Through the previous bill.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Yes.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Yes.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

And through Bill C-6, Zakaria Amara stands to regain his Canadian citizenship. Is that also correct?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Yes.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Is he going to apply for citizenship?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

He is not required to.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

So he automatically gets citizenship sitting in the jail?