Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This one goes directly to a very short section, subclause 48(2). We're now dealing with those sections where the pre-clearance area is Canadian screening of people coming to Canada. Subclause 48(2) says:
No claim for refugee protection under section 99 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act may be made in a preclearance area or preclearance perimeter.
I have to say that when I read this, in reading the bill for the first time when it came out at first reading, my marginal note was, “why not?”, and certainly I've seen many briefs to that extent. It doesn't make sense to me that we would do this. It certainly is an offence under our obligations and Canada's obligations under the United Nations convention on the rights of refugees to say that you can't make a claim when you're there. There's no reason for it. The purpose of the act is to deal with screening of people coming into Canada to facilitate cross-border movement. There isn't any justification under this act for restricting the rights of refugees.
The simplest thing to do with an offensive section is to delete it, and my amendment proposes that deletion.