Mr. Speaker, I feel particularly concerned about the immigration bill introduced by the government. I must say that in my riding of Québec-Est there is the case of a Mr. Chouaiby, who arrived in Canada from Morocco in 1988. In 1989, he committed a robbery during which he seriously injured a security guard and, in 1990, he strangled a 19-year old woman.
He was sentenced to prison where he spent three years. In 1993, he got out and was allowed to remain in Canada by the Immigration and Refugee Board. They accepted him. They allowed him to stay in Canada for another six years, seven years in fact, until the year 2000, on the grounds that he could be rehabilitated.
However, I found their decision totally unacceptable because the mother of the woman who was strangled met him on the street after he moved back to the same neighbourhood. She saw him again several times. What a shock it must have been to see her daughter's killer in her own neighbourhood. She had to move. The troubled mother then lost her job because of the severe psychological shock she experienced. She then had to move. She does not work any more and she is still afraid of running into this man again in her neighbourhood.
I approached the minister of immigration to find out whether it is possible to deport this young man who is still violent, who is even considered by psychologists and psychiatrists to be very violent. The Immigration Act as it now stands and even if it were amended by this bill-although we may be in favour of this bill in principle-contains many shortcomings. Here is one of them: the bill does not deal with such cases, which are quite common in Canada. I think there are about 150 similar cases in Canada.
We are unable to expel this young man from Canada, at least until the year 2000, unless he commits another murder or another serious crime. That is ridiculous. It is as though Canadian citizens and especially the victim's mother were taken hostage by a violent immigrant who may be about to commit another act of violence. It is totally absurd. Totally unacceptable. This person should have been deported the day after he got out of jail. That is an example of the appalling mismanagement at the Canadian department of immigration. In fact, this case could have been invoked as a reason to tighten this act.
Of course, we, in the Bloc Quebecois, totally agree with the principle of this bill but it contains huge holes, unfortunately.
The minister should review his bill and tighten it so that it can tackle the real problems. That is the comment I wanted to make.