Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As the minister indicated, all the rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are subject to section 1 of the charter, which provides that the rights are guaranteed, subject to reasonable limits imposed by a free and democratic society. The view of the government is that it is a reasonable limit upon Canadians' constitutional rights to enter, remain in, or leave the country if they are leaving the country for the purposes of facilitating, participating in, or actually committing a terrorist offence.
This is not simply a question of people leaving to go to a foreign country to commit terrorist acts. It may be that they're going there to obtain training and then coming back to Canada and actually threatening the lives and safety of Canadians. They are trained by a terrorist group, and then they're able to use that training to threaten the safety of Canadians.
In the context of public safety there's a strong case to be made that it is a reasonable limit to prevent people who are intentionally leaving the country not for a holiday and not for personal purposes, but for terrorist purposes. We should be able to stop them.
We stop people from coming into the country if they have criminal designs or criminal purposes. We stop people from coming into the country if they have terrorist purposes. Our immigration law provides that. The government believes it's also a reasonable limit on people who leave this country for terrorist purposes, and even come back to this country. That is also a reasonable limit. It's a balance, as the minister indicated.