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.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
As a follow-up, we talked about COVID-19 and all of that, but what would this have looked like if these provisions were enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic? How would things have been different for us?
Director General, Integrity Policy and Programs, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Again, it's hard to give one example around this situation, but the fact is that we as the immigration department were down to being able to process only exceptional cases, urgent cases and family reunification cases. There were people who were trying to apply to Canada who were unable to travel, maybe for a health reason or because airlines were not flying. We could suggest that it might be in the public interest for the Governor in Council to make an order to pause application processing or prevent, as in stop, applications from flowing at this time, because we know that people cannot fly, people cannot come and it would be in our health interest. Once vaccinations were out, maybe then we would have a proof of vaccination to travel, so it could have resulted in, I think, the prevention of a backlog being built.
Again, it would have to be determined to be in the public interest by the Governor in Council and published in the Canada Gazette.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you, Ms. Lang.
Thank you, Ms. Sodhi.
We now go to our final round, which is our fifth round, and we have Ms. Rempel Garner for five minutes.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
I'd just like to go back to the mass cancellation powers because, Minister, you really haven't outlined where you would use those powers. You mentioned preventing fraud that happened during the pandemic—you keep talking about the pandemic. I note that a lot of people who are on the Hong Kong pathways, for example, came in during the pandemic. What's to stop you—or not you but the government—from using this power to cancel the visas of everybody here on the Hong Kong pathway?
What would stop it, conceivably, if we let this pass? What's the safeguard from your doing that?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
There are a lot of safeguards. I already said I'm not going to have any singular power.
Conservative
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
It's not in the power of the minister. It's in exceptional cases. It has to be deemed in the public interest. It goes to the Governor in Council. It has to be charter-compliant. There are a lot of safeguards in the system.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
The government here.... We've seen examples where the government has done crazy things “in the public interest”, like issuing the Emergencies Act.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
That might be your opinion; it may not be someone else's opinion.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
One of your former colleagues talked about using tanks on people. That actually happened during your government's tenure, so what is to stop...? I want to know because you're asking us to vote in favour of this bill. What is to stop you from, en masse, cancelling the entire PR and visas of everybody who's on a Hong Kong pathway right now? What's the safeguard in there, specifically?
Liberal
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
But you just said it was to cancel en masse. It wasn't for individual cases—
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
It could be extended. Again, it would have to be in the public interest, and that is why the regulations will specify some of these as well.
Conservative
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
It would go to the Governor in Council. There's a cabinet committee. All kinds of ministries would be involved.
Conservative
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
Justice would be involved. It would have to comply with our charter.
October 30th, 2025 / 5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You want Parliament to give the government the ability to kick out mass groups of people, undefined, whom they don't like. That's what it sounds like to me. You're not being specific with regard to safeguards here. You're literally asking Parliament to circumvent laws that protect charter rights and to mass cancel entire groups of people who could be here, and you can't say who. How could I go to ethnic groups in my community and say that I could vote for this? This is actually bananas and so anti-Canadian.
What are those specific safeguards? You haven't defined it in the legislation. You're sitting here, blathering. You're literally asking us to say, “Yes, we should give the government the right to just cancel, en masse, PRs.” Imagine you're sitting down with RED FM tomorrow. Are you going to be saying the same thing to them that you're saying to me now?
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
These are not designed to block people who need protection from accessing the system.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
These powers would be used only in exceptional circumstances, when determined in the public interest.