Madam Speaker, it was interesting after the verbal tirade and pontifications of the hon. member that she went on at some length to talk about the need for a proper trial and so on that she says that I have a criminal lack of knowledge. I guess she has tried and convicted me already. Maybe there is no point in answering.
When it comes to the exact number of people of the 24,000 that I mentioned earlier who have criminal records, I would not know. Say there is 10 per cent, say there are 2,500 cases serious enough for deportation. Certainly in one city the size of Toronto I would be alarmed at 2,500 people having criminal records causing them to be deported. That is cause for serious concern. The rest of course are also ordered to be deported and according to the government's own figures and facts no fewer need to be deported. It says that it is the one that has given the deportation orders. It is just that it does not carry them out.
There is a sad part about this. There was a case a little while ago. Someone wanted to bring in a 14-year old girl from Fiji on a student visa and this is the gong show they had to go through.
They have to get the student visa which is the last step in the whole process. However that is what they are trying to get.
These people put forward a net worth statement and had to prove they had an ongoing job, that they could support this student while here. They did that.
Next they had to give a floor plan of their house showing they had a room for this girl when she got here. That was kind of insulting but they got the floor plan for their house and faxed it off to try to arrange for this student visa.
Then they had to arrange for legal guardianship so that they could say they would be her legal guardian while she was in Canada on this student visa. They arranged for that.
Next they would have to get permission from the school board. They arranged for written permission from the school board for the girl to attend.
Then they received a fax saying that was not enough. They now have to have a transcript of the court decision that gave them legal guardianship. It was not enough that they had the paper. They now had to jump through another hoop and show the transcript.
All this is safe. This is what someone is trying to do to legally bring someone in on a student visa.