Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 19th, 2023

[Marilou McPhedran]

It was a combination, saying that we're issuing—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Can you table that with the committee?

[Marilou McPhedran]

Yes, I can give you everything. I'm happy to. It's only in English, though.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay. I'm specifically interested.

Can you tell me which email address...? To follow up from Ms. Kayabaga, you know for a fact that you sent it to the actual ministers' personal email addresses.

[Marilou McPhedran]

Their P9s.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay.

Did you receive any responses from the ministers' P9s with regard to the facilitation letters?

[Marilou McPhedran]

I did.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Can you table that?

[Marilou McPhedran]

I also received phone calls.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Can you table that with the committee as well?

[Marilou McPhedran]

Yes, I can.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay.

I also think that it's really important what Ms. Kayabaga said—desperately important. Regardless of what you may think, I think it is important for anyone listening to this committee to understand that parliamentarians in the Senate or in the House of Commons do not have authorization to grant access to Canada, because I think that—

[Marilou McPhedran]

And I did not do that.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay.

Senator, I'm not clear at this point what you thought you did. I have a letter here saying, “visa facilitation letter”. There's a Globe and Mail article saying that Ms. Robinson said this letter would definitely get them into Canada.

For the record, for anybody who is listening around the world or in Canada, a parliamentarian cannot grant you access into Canada. We can't grant you access to an airport. There's a reason why we have government processes. I want to be very clear. Our job as parliamentarians is to fix the processes and to hold the government to account.

Senator, you put my family's lives at risk. You did.

[Marilou McPhedran]

I reject that allegation.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You did.

[Marilou McPhedran]

I reject that allegation. I did everything I could to try to help them.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

No. They went to the airport and they came—

[Marilou McPhedran]

They had to make choices.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

They put their lives in danger and then they weren't able to apply for a regular program. Do you know how much heartbreak that...?

Again, you just said earlier that you would do this all over again. Knowing what you know now, knowing that there are 150 people languishing in Albania because you took it upon yourself to issue these letters, would you do it again?

[Marilou McPhedran]

These women are in Albania with food, with shelter, with safety. They are in a much better position than in Afghanistan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

What about my family?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up for Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Marilou McPhedran]

Your family had to make choices like many of the other people we tried to help.