Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 25th, 2020

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

It would certainly apply for those post-graduate students who are here and who are endeavouring to secure employment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up.

We will now move to Ms. Dancho for our second round of questioning.

Ms. Dancho, you have five minutes.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, I just want to ask a few questions about your Hong Kong announcement last week.

Your officials said that those work permits, and I assume also the accelerated study permits, will begin to be available in December. Can you confirm that?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Ms. Dancho, again, your sound is not coming through very well. I apologize.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Madam Chair, I wonder what I should be doing here. Is there any other option?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'll stop the clock.

Mr. Clerk, can you look into it?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Maybe it's the microphone.

[The Clerk]

Our indication is that the audio at our end is fine. I've sent a message to you and to the department on how we might address this moving forward, but as far as we know, there's nothing wrong with Ms. Dancho's microphone.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

It was good with Ms. Kwan's six minutes before.

Ms. Dancho, can you please try again and we will see?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay, are we restarting then? It's just that it's only happened to me. Would you mind if we restarted? I was at 17 seconds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Yes, you can restart.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Minister, please let me know if you can hear me. I am going to try to talk very loudly, and we'll see if that works.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I can hear you now. It's not just you. It's happened to me on translation, so you're not the only one.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Yes, it's been a bit of a disjointed day for all of us.

Okay, I am just going to start this again.

I am just going to ask you that again. With regard to your Hong Kong announcement a few weeks ago, your officials said that the work permits—I assume that means also those accelerated study permits—are going to be available beginning in December. Can you confirm that this will be the case?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I'll reaffirm that the plan is to begin welcoming eligible applicants under this Hong Kong initiative in early 2021.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Okay, thank you. So not until January. In January, we can expect people to start coming. Great.

I want to ask—

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Just to be clear, early 2021 was my answer, Ms. Dancho.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Right, so it may not be in January, but maybe in February or March. Okay, so it's not this year. Understood. Thank you.

I want to ask you about 200 young pro-democracy activists who were arrested in Hong Kong. Their travel documents were taken, and then they took a boat. They fled Hong Kong and took a boat to Taiwan, which is a 600-kilometre journey by boat. I can't imagine what that must have been like for them.

I'm just wondering.... My understanding is that they wouldn't be eligible for anything that you announced two weeks ago. Can you confirm that? Is there anything that we can do for them?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I wouldn't make that assumption, Ms. Dancho. Each of these cases will be evaluated on its merits. The point of the Hong Kong initiative is to invite an opportunity to bring talent and experience here, which we richly need for our economy.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I completely agree.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I was very pleased to be able to make that announcement.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Minister, but my question is this: How do we help them? How can we get them a study permit if they don't have access to travel documents to come here? How could they claim asylum if they can't travel here? I just don't understand what we can offer pro-democracy activists who have already fled Hong Kong to Taiwan, because it doesn't seem like we have anything. There is not even consular access in Taiwan.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I would just clarify that we have, again, one of the best asylum systems, if not the best asylum system, in the world.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

But they have to get here first. Is that correct?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

We have continued to resettle the most urgent cases, notwithstanding the challenge of the pandemic. As I have pointed out, we have added some additional protections to the Hong Kong announcement to ensure that our asylum system upholds human rights—