I move that Bill C-12, in clause 38, be amended by replacing lines 14 to 16 on page 17 with the following:
44.1 The Immigration Division must terminate all proceedings in respect of an admissibility hearing if the permanent resident or foreign national who is the subject of the proceedings is not physically
Colleagues, the reason I'm presenting this amendment is that I believe that we have a duty as parliamentarians to address some of the abuse that we've seen of Canada's asylum system over the last several years.
The point of the asylum system is to provide refuge and safe harbour—this is well established under different conventions—to people who are in genuine need of protection.
In recent years, we've seen the number of asylum claims spike, particularly after an ill-fated #WelcomeToCanada tweet in 2017 and a decision to lift the visa requirement on Mexican nationals without a plan to prevent bogus asylum claims. I now feel that we need to ensure that we are clearing the backlog of 300,000 applications in a judicious way, as well as ensuring that we are disincentivizing people from continuing to abuse the asylum system.
I know that if somebody has made an asylum claim in Canada and is claiming that they can't go back to their home country out of fear of persecution and therefore want to stay in Canada, it is somewhat questionable if they would go back to the country from which they are trying to claim that they need protection while their claim is pending.
People might say somebody needs to go for a birthday party or whatever, but here's the reality. If you are seeking asylum in Canada from your home country, you probably shouldn't go back to your home country while your asylum claim is pending. I think that constitutes an obvious abuse of the asylum system, and I hope that my colleagues accept this common-sense amendment.
Thank you.