Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 12th, 2024

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Okay. Are we on Mrs. Zahid's as well?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Zahid's amendment has already been agreed to. Now we are debating the motion.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There's been a bit of confusion this morning, but I am very glad to see this motion come forward. I'm happy to support it because as we know, right now these two countries, Sudan and Gaza, are places where.... Direct members of our communities have been reaching out and asking for support, not just to support family members who are still in these places, but also to bring back family members who are Canadian.

I'm going to reference some of people from my riding—the Kouta family. This is a family of about 16 people, and eight people have already been able to leave Gaza and come back to the city. There are still four family members with Canadian citizenship who have not been able to come home. That is very problematic, and we look forward to seeing what the rationale behind it is and how we can get them home safely and as soon as possible.

We're doing the reunification of family members of people who have been displaced, and I want to give some numbers for Sudan because a lot of people don't know what's happening in Sudan. As my colleague rightly said, there has been very little information on the Sudanese crisis.

More than seven million people have been displaced through this crisis. I have community members with family members in Sudan, and not only do they not have access to leave, but they can't even get a visa. We're putting in measures, and I want to talk to officials to understand how these measures are going to help when offices on the ground have been closed.

Women in Sudan are being raped in broad daylight. It is recorded. War crimes are happening, and there is no infrastructure in place to help people leave this place.

Canada is known for supporting a lot of people when they go through these crises. That's why we have a really good reputation. There are a few crises I can think of where we stepped up, which is exactly who we are, and did what we do, which is give a compassionate response.

When it comes to Sudan, many community members have asked why we haven't seen an equal response to their crisis and why a lot of our community members can't bring their families here. A member of my community is a hard-working taxi driver who can't reunite with his family members because there is no infrastructure for them to even get visas or to get an ID. The process it takes now for them to process their papers and be reunited with their families, and even prior to the crisis, is something we really need to discuss.

To what my colleague Mrs. Zahid said, I think Gaza is a very unlivable place right now for anyone, for any child, and if Canadians are still stuck in Gaza, it is our responsibility to bring them home. We have put in measures that allow families to be reunited, but the numbers are limited. What is the rationale behind that?

Our response to other crises, like Ukraine, has been very different, and I think we should step up. We need to do more. This is why I'm supporting my colleague's motion. I hope everybody else will as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Madam Kayabaga.

I'm going to Mr. Chiang, the honourable parliamentary secretary.

Thank you for your patience, Mr. Chiang. I know you had your hand up. I didn't mean to ignore you.

Go ahead, please.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to speak.

I support this motion, and I'm happy that we are able to do something about this.

Since this crisis in Gaza started on October 7, I have had numerous meetings with families and people who have families stuck in this crisis. They are pleading with us to get them out of Gaza. The atrocities happening there are unimaginable for us as Canadians.

As Canada has been a beacon for many nations through conflicts and war, I think we should step up and help the people stuck in Gaza and Sudan. The atrocities happening are terrible things. The images we see on social media and in the news really break my heart when I see them.

Since October 7, I have had numerous meetings with leaders from the communities in my riding. I have two large mosques in my riding, and the leaders from both mosques have been to my office. We have had numerous meetings in regard to this and how we as the government and a country can help bring refugees and people in crisis out of Gaza and Sudan.

I'm fully in support of this motion, and I hope we can move ahead and help the people who are in dire need in the Middle East and Sudan. I'm hoping to work with my colleagues across the aisle to ensure that we can expedite this, with all parties working together.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to speak.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Mr. Chiang.

Madam Zahid, please go ahead.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm really thankful to my colleagues for supporting this motion. The last 125 days have been very heavy on all of us. It has not been easy for me, as a mother, to see all the horrific pictures coming from there. In the last 125 days, we have lost close to 30,000 innocent lives, many of them children and women.

I've been having meetings with my constituents and hearing from a lot of people. On Friday I hosted a town hall in my riding, and many people came all the way from different parts of Ontario to talk about their loved ones trapped in Gaza, who do not have anything to eat. They don't have drinking water. It's a humanitarian crisis, and I think Canada has always stood for making sure that we build peace. It's very important that we schedule this meeting as soon as possible because so many Canadians are looking to us to get their loved ones out of that humanitarian crisis.

I've heard from grandparents who have lost their children. Their grandchildren are without parents, so they have custody and really want to bring them here because there is no one to look after them. Thousands of people are housed in UNRWA schools—14,000 to 15,000, on average—and using one washroom. That's what life is like for people living in Gaza. There are many people who have children over the age of 24 trapped there. They have siblings trapped there. Some people, I have heard, have lost their siblings, and their kids are with their mother. There's no one to look after them. It's very important that we get people who are trapped there here so they can be reunited with their loved ones and we can bring peace to them.

I would request that this meeting be scheduled, because it's a time-sensitive issue. Every day, every second, people are being killed in that area, so it's very important that we schedule this meeting as soon as possible so we can hear from the minister what efforts are being made to make sure we get to the people trapped there and reunite them with their loved ones.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Madam Zahid.

I don't see any more speakers, so is there consensus to carry the motion as amended?

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Before we move forward, I want to thank the clerk and in particular the interpreters today because it is not the duty of the clerk and the interpreters to translate when we bring in amendments.

If members in general—I'm not pinpointing anyone—know prior to coming to the meeting that there will be subamendments or amendments to motions, they can ask their party officials to translate and bring them in both official languages. That will help us.

Thank you to all honourable members and in particular the interpreters and the clerk.

With that, the floor is open.

Madam Kwan, please go ahead.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee members for supporting the last motion.

I have another motion that I'd like to move at this point. Notice has been given for it. It reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities and relevant officials together for two hours, or invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship with relevant officials for two hours, and the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities to appear separately with relevant officials for one hour to update the committee on:

(a) the work of the task force addressing the exploitation scheme targeting international students as many students are still reporting that they are in limbo and have not heard back from officials about their status;

(b) the measures taken by IRCC and institutions to help prevent and protect international students from fraud schemes;

(c) the justification to increase the financial requirements for international students by more than 100% to $20,635;

(d) the justification for putting a cap on international study permits; and

(e) the plans to address the housing crisis for international students and efforts made to collaborate with provinces, territories and post-secondary institutions.

I think the motion is self-explanatory on all elements, and I think we would benefit from having the two ministers appear before our committee. We've also deliberated this issue at length at another meeting, so in the interest of time, I won't revisit all of those points.

I hope committee members will support this motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Madam Kwan.

The motion was put on notice on February 1. It's in order, so I will go to the discussion.

I'll go to Mr. Redekopp and then Mr. Chiang.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate this motion. Of course, it's very similar to the motion we put forward, which was defeated unfortunately, but there are a couple of things in it that are important for us.

Obviously, we've been working with international students, so it would be great to hear back about what the status of that is. The government seems to have responded in certain ways and not in others, and I know there are still students who are very much in limbo and trying to find answers. I think it would be great to have the minister and other people here to talk about that, so that's good too.

As to the cap on international study permits, there are many questions about how this is going to work and what the numbers are going to be. It seemed like a very last-minute, haphazard thing put in by the government, so I think it would be great for us to have the opportunity to dig a little deeper and find out exactly how this is supposed to work—what the rules are, what the regulations are for the provinces, what the caps are and those kinds of things.

I think this study is important and we need to do it, so I'll support this motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you, Mr. Redekopp.

We'll go to the parliamentary secretary, Mr. Chiang, and then to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.

Mr. Chiang, go ahead.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to amend the motion so that “two hours” is “90 minutes”. If they appear separately, it should be 90 minutes instead of two hours.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Kwan, do you accept that friendly amendment to your motion?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

If I'm understanding it correctly, the amendment is that instead of having the two ministers come for two hours, we'd have the two ministers come for 90 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Go ahead, Mr. Chiang.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

No, it's a total of 90 minutes—the two ministers coming in for a total of 90 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

It's 45 minutes each.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

The ministers would come for 45 minutes each.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

That's right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Madam Kwan, is that okay?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Can we take a pause for a minute?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Sure. I'll suspend the meeting for two minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I call the meeting back to order.

The floor goes to Mr. Chiang.