Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 27th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Please go ahead. I have started the clock.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

I understand how the program works and my question is for you. You made a statement a few weeks ago to the media when the media clearly asked you if criminal background checks are done and you said, yes. When the media asked how that works, you said if they have a criminal background they are not allowed into the country.

Now you are telling me that police clearance certificates and background checks at the country of origin are not completed. Is that true?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I think your premise is that police certificates are the starting point and the be-all and end-all of a comprehensive security check, which they are not. I think you would agree with me that a Hamas-issued security certificate or police certificate would not be acceptable for someone exiting Gaza.

Do you agree with me?

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

You will have your chance, Minister, to ask those questions when you're on the other side of the bench. My question for you is simple. It's about how you misled the media and you misled Canadians when they were asking you a point blank question.

The question is very simple. Did you purposely mislead Canadians or were you not confident enough to say that during the time the media asked you that? Which one is it? Are you misleading Canadians or were you incompetent and you didn't know your process for your old file?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

You are new to this place, MP Khanna. You are making a lot of assumptions. I think perhaps you have fallen victim to the algorithms of your chief. The reality is I did not mislead anyone.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

I have a point of order on this, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I have stopped the clock. There's a point of order.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

I have been elected to this House for about a year now. Regardless if I have been here for a year, 10 years or 15 years, the minister should not be questioning my competence on the file. Clearly, he didn't have the answer when the media asked him these questions. He clearly misled Canadians. Now he's throwing accusations back at me saying I'm not informed.

I think he should go back and read his ministerial department notes and maybe listen to the predecessor who said that they were not done earlier.

Minister, before you start throwing accusations, please read your own documents.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I would say to the honourable minister that we should not refer to how long a member has been in this House and we should respect that.

I agree with Mr. Khanna. I think those comments are not appropriate.

I will give the floor to you, Mr. Khanna.

Go ahead with the question.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Minister, on the website it clearly states that police clearance certificates are not mandatory. Your predecessor, Sean Fraser, the former minister of immigration, now the Minister of Housing, who caused this housing crisis because of his reckless policies at the time when he was minister, has said that police clearance certificates and criminal background checks at the country of origin are not mandatory. Why did you tell the media that when they asked you point blank?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Kayabaga, please go ahead.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you.

I appreciate that we have a visiting member today. All of us want to get through the Sudan and Gaza questions. Can we stay relevant, please, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

I will go to Mr. Khanna.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Absolutely. I think it's relevant because of the integrity of our system so it's a very general question I'm asking for this program.

Can the minister let me know how many Canadians have been let into Canada who have submitted police clearance certificates and criminal background checks before entering Canada?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Honourable Minister, just a minute.

I will go to Madam Kayabaga.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you.

To clarify, can you tell us what the subject of the conversation today is so that we can stay on that? We want to get to our questions as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

That's fine, Ms. Kayabaga.

Minister Miller, please respond to the question put by Mr. Khanna.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

When you become a resident, you obviously have to provide those types of checks, but for temporary residents, I never said police certificates were required. This is where you, Mr. Khanna, and your colleagues, are misleading people. I said we did verifications. That's what we do. That is true. If you assume the contrary, you assume all the responsibility and liability with respect to that if you make those statements outside of here.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Minister, are you confirming that police clearance certificates and criminal background checks are not done for temporary residents entering this country?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I have never said that certificates are required for temporary residents. They may be required if an officer decides to do so as part of a cascading security screening. None of your colleagues should pretend that I ever made that claim, and if they do so outside this place, there are consequences.

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

How many temporary residents who have been let into Canada have had to submit police clearance certificates? How many?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Minister, the time is up. Please respond briefly.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

You would have to ask over what time period. You would have to ask which categories and which officers have asked for police certificates. You're assuming that police certificates are the be-all and end-all. In the case of the individuals in question, and in the context of a police investigation, I'm not going to speak further, but you could imagine how unreliable those certificates would be where they have been required.