Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 12th, 2016

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

He automatically has his citizenship reinstated. This is for purposes of consistency. If we don't think it's right for his citizenship to be revoked for those reasons, that principle should be applied generally.

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

Mr. Minister, as you said, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. The same thing should apply that a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist. Even his own people don't want to let that kind of person into their own backyard.

Next, another one of the convicted Toronto 18 terrorists, Gaya, who pleaded guilty to terrorist charges in relation to the Toronto 18 terror plot and was serving a 12-year sentence, was guaranteed day parole in January of this year. Although subject to certain conditions, he is now able to walk freely on Canadian streets. In contrast, the previous Conservative government was taking the legal steps necessary to strip him of his Canadian citizenship.

How is allowing a convicted terrorist to walk freely on Canadian streets not a security threat?

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

I have confidence in our legal authorities and their ability to monitor people who may be security threats.

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

Given the fact that this government believes in consulting the public on all these things, on all these changes, and this is a huge change, did we consult the public on this issue?

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

We consulted a very broad public, which is called the population of Canada, in the last election. They voted for us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, you have three minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

The minister—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Sorry, that's my mistake. It's Mr. Ehsassi for five minutes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

Minister, I want to join my other colleagues on this committee to once again thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here with your officials.

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

Even though I was late.... My apologies, again.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Also, I want to thank you for the energy you've brought to the task and for the important and timely changes you are making to the Citizenship Act. This was a very lively issue in my riding of Willowdale, so it's very nice to see that some of the excesses of Bill C-24 have been addressed in Bill C-6.

Now if I could, I will focus my question on the credit that is being provided to those who are temporary residents in this country and who intend to apply for citizenship. I find that to be a very useful change, and I have every confidence that it will have a discernible impact on attracting some of the best and brightest from around the world to apply for Canadian citizenship. One could think of international students, or of course, people who are experienced workers.

I had an opportunity to look at the changes being contemplated and to compare them to provisions that are also available in the American and Australian citizenship system. My colleague had a chance to ask you whether there was some consideration of providing more than 50% credit for that period.

My question is whether there was any consideration of having a cap that would not be for 365 days, but actually for a two-year period. Is that something that was contemplated?

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

You only have to have three years for citizenship, so that would be two out of three. Again, these things are all debatable, but we thought that where we went was sufficient.

You mentioned international students, and I might add that we've moved to reinstate the 50% credit for citizenship, but more important is access to permanent residence. Here's an example of something that's not in my mandate and not in my platform, but I still wanted to do it, which is to increase the points under express entry for international students to give them greater access to permanent residence.

My aim is to help international students, not just through reinstatement of the 50% credit for citizenship but also by improving their access to permanent residence through the express entry system. I don't think there's any more positive group of people for what good Canadians they will become than international students. They're educated. They know French or English, and they know something about the country. This is a double-courting of them, if you will; one way is through Bill C-6 to reinstate the 50% credit, and also through something that hasn't happened yet but hopefully will soon to make it easier for them to become permanent residents.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

The second question I have is on how the physical presence period would be determined for refugee claims. I'm not clear on that particular issue.

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

I believe it would be the same way.

Is that correct, or is there a difference?

[Catrina Tapley]

Mr. Chair, if I may, with respect to counting time before you're a permanent resident for asylum claimants who are within Canada, once there's been a positive determination, then it would be possible to count that time here as a protected person up to and including a permanent resident. That time could apply for citizenship. However, the time that they're here until they have a positive determination on that status would not count.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

That concludes my questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Kwan, you have three minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

The minister mentioned a two-tier citizenship, and a citizen is a citizen is a citizen.

Now the issue of lost Canadians I think has been brought to the minister's attention, and there are great concerns around this issue. Essentially the current legislation denies Canadians born abroad from the ability to pass on citizenship to their children, even in the event that there is significant contribution to Canada and to Canadians.

I wonder whether the minister would be willing to entertain amendments to this effect, if not to Bill C-6, then in a separate amendment. My former colleague, Olivia Chow, had tabled a private member's bill in this regard. Would the government be interested in entertaining such a move?

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

Before I answer that question, I think it might be good for Ms. Hubers to explain the context and a bit of detail.

[Mary-Ann Hubers]

There's nothing in Bill C-6 that talks about the first-generation limit, but there is in the law a first-generation limit that applies to children born abroad to a Canadian citizen. There were a number of reforms done that gave citizenship back to lost Canadians. The first one was in Bill C-37 in 2009. Then there were additional changes in Bill C-24 that gave citizenship back or gave it for the first time to a number of other lost Canadians. There were a number of individuals who were fixed by those provisions.

For those who are impacted now in terms of being themselves first generation born abroad, and they have a child abroad who's therefore not eligible for citizenship by descent, there are some avenues available to them. For example, they can sponsor that child for a permanent residence to Canada. If the child is stateless because they don't have access to any other citizenship, there's a grant in the Citizenship Act for stateless children of Canadians.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I guess I won't spend time talking about that. I was looking to see what the minister's point of view was with respect to that because for a number of Canadians that is still deficient, and there's a number of people who are still caught in this “lost Canadians” category. I only have 30 seconds so I'm going to move on to another issue.

I want to touch very quickly on the language issue. The LINC program has been cut in terms of the funding. VCC, in my riding, particularly has faced an 8.5% cut. We've talked about languages and the importance of that. Will the minister reinstate the funding cuts for LINC programs across the country?

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

There's very little in terms of welcoming newcomers that is more important than language. I don't know what percentage of our settlement funding....

[Catrina Tapley]

It's one-third.

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

One-third goes to language. As a consequence of the refugee initiative, the total funding for language training has gone up not down. It's possible it's gone down in your riding, I don't deny that. It varies somewhat across the country but, overall, language funding nationally has gone up. We want to continue to make that language funding very high because we understand the importance of language.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Minister, under previous Liberal governments residents without legal temporary residency were allowed to include the time spent in Canada prior to obtaining permanent residence toward their residency requirement. This would include refugee claimants, persons whose sponsorship application had been approved, and those whose applications for permanent residence on humanitarian considerations had been approved.

I'm concerned that Bill C-6, as worded in proposed paragraph (5)(1.001)(a), does not consider this time as residency. I assume that you would be amenable to a friendly amendment that would clarify this issue in cases of refugee claimants, sponsorship, and humanitarian and compassionate cases.