Evidence of meeting #10 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was system.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
So am I. That's why I'm here as well.
Thank you. Thanks for letting me know that.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
We share with the Five Eyes countries all kinds of information when we screen applicants. That's part of the screening processes.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You agree that they are presumptively safe democracies as well.
I'm talking about G7 and EU nations.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
The question was about G7 and EU countries.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
Again, we can go to Global Affairs if you'd like a more detailed answer on that one.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Does Bill C-12 bar asylum claims from the safe G7 and EU jurisdictions like we have barred claims from the United States?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
We have an agreement with the United States because we share the largest land border with them.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
I understand, but Bill C-12 doesn't bar asylum claims from G7 and EU countries. Anybody can argue a G7 or EU country has a judicial system on par with Canada.
Would you agree with that, yes or no?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
Again, we work with all the G7 countries, of course, throughout—
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Wouldn't it be helpful to have this power written into the legislation?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
You are here to.... This is a study that the committee's doing, and you're free to make recommendations—
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You're the minister. We only get you here for two hours. I'm asking you what you think. Do you not agree that we should be—
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Do you not agree we should also be looking at G7 and EU nations the same way we look at the United States? They are safe countries; they are democracies.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
Claiming asylum doesn't guarantee the right to stay in Canada. They still have to prove a well-founded claim of fear of persecution, etc. It's on an individual case-by-case—
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
You have a huge backlog, Minister. You said you want to reduce bogus claims. Can anybody come up with a better argument that it's a bogus claim than if you want to come here from Portugal or England or Greece? These are democracies, like ours, around the world with judicial systems.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Okay, so you don't want to do that, clearly.
Conservative
Costas Menegakis Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Okay.
What about en masse cancellations, Minister? Are you saying you want to punish victims of fraud?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
IRCC is not here to punish anybody. We're neither the court nor the enforcement section of the land. I mean, that's why you have policing. You have provincial jurisdictions that administer the justice system and policing.
Conservative
Liberal