Thank you very much for appearing.
We've had the benefit of probably several hundred years' worth of people who have studied the law all their lives, and quite frankly, we benefit from that.
I am commencing to speak this way because I have a question that may, in and of itself, make you wonder why I say it the way I do, but there is a purpose.
One of the reasons we give to our children for protecting the most dastardly criminals, the worst possible people who exist as human beings, is that in protecting their rights, we somehow are able to protect our rights, because we too may end up, through no fault of our own, being unjustly accused. But when we tell that to our children, we tell them in terms of them being members of our society. In other words, we tell them as Canadians.
I have written down the question because I think sovereign nations have the intrinsic right to decide. I mean, if you're born in that country, you're automatically a citizen, but a sovereign nation has the right to determine who it bestows the privilege of citizenship upon.
I think that when average Canadians who don't have the benefit of years and years of jurisprudence education look upon the world and the need for their government to protect them, and realize that you cannot be the guardian of every single one of the billions of people on earth, they need some clarification and some assurance. That's where I see myself coming from as a legislator. I need to walk back to my constituency and assure those people that yes, we are protecting you.
There are a lot of devious people in this world who get the impression that all you have to do is put your big toe on Canadian soil and mister, you have every benefit this country has to offer, bar no expense. How do you tell the person who carries a lunch pail into a factory every day and works hard and pays taxes that all of a sudden, somebody who the government or an agent of the government who we would hope would act in the best interests of every Canadian.... This might be a devious person who wants to be a Canadian. They say, “Put his butt on a plane and send him back to where he came from”. There is a right way to come to my country and there is a wrong way to come to my country.
In order to meet our international obligations and our obligations as citizens of the world, we say that just in case there's been a mistake here and that the agents of the government have done something wrong, we'll set up a process that will review this person's—as I would rudely put it—carcass being on our soil.
I say those things because the average person out there hears all these esoteric arguments, and I have to be able to go back to that person and sell this. One of the things I'm going to get back is that this is just the legal industry trying to create another level and all these assistants. By the way, I do think a lawyer needs to have some assistance with some of these files, because we see some in our office.
I was just in the House a while ago, and we were talking about the economy and single mothers. These are funds that we're not going to be able to use for our own citizens who are born here.
Tell me what right we have as a sovereign nation to decide who is a citizen and who is not. When you answer that, can you also tell me how western democracies, such as France and Germany, handle these situations?