The reason that this is important for this committee is that there are two Canadian companies involved in preventing this for Hong Kongers when they enter Canada with a BNO passport. They are Sun Life and Manulife. There is about $69 million being withheld from Hong Kongers.
What's happening is that when these persons come to Canada, they have temporary status. As they work through it, they become PRs, permanent residents. Once they have PR, they get a PR card. On the PR card, the first three digits show what document they used to enter the country. If they came in on a BNO passport—the British National Overseas passport—it is basically an indicator to the Hong Kong offices of these two Canadian companies as to how you came in.
Because PRC Beijing no longer recognizes the BNO as a travel document, it is now being used to deny Canadian Hong Kongers who are permanent residents of Canada or Canadians their ability to transfer from the MPF—which is their pension monies—to Canada. It's a form of transnational repression that is being used by Beijing to target Hong Kongers in Canada. This is one of these examples of transnational repression by an authoritarian regime.
The one in Beijing is the best example, but Hong Kong Watch has done a lot of work. I actually held a round table on this subject on November 23. I will also mention that the Liberal research bureau was in the room, so they have the same documents that I do on this subject.
It's related to immigration, because IRCC is the issuer of the PR card. The PR card that shows those three letters, those three numbers, at the front, indicates to the pension company, when it's making the filings in the Hong Kong jurisdiction, how they entered the country. Then that is what's being used, because of Hong Kong law, to target Canadian citizens and Canadian permanent residents in Canada who are from Hong Kong. This is why we need to call in these companies involved. They need to explain themselves. Global Affairs needs to be called in to see what they know. I know for a fact that Hong Kong Watch has been trying to get the government's attention on the matter. As far as I know, there's been no real response to it.
This is very short. This will take only one meeting, just to look into it. I know that the Hong Kong community in Canada would really appreciate it. These are people who in some cases have lost everything to come here—everything—because the Communists will either push them out or chase them all over the world wherever they go. Withholding their pension monies is a form of transnational repression. IRCC, the immigration department, is deeply related to this.
I want this motion to be passed so that we can call these companies to account. Otherwise, we're just protecting big business.