Mr. Speaker, I will heed that caution.
Immigrants are responsible for a small percentage of crime in Canada. Immigrants are under represented in Canadian prisons. That speaks to the character of immigrants to Canada. That speaks to the gratitude of the immigrant population. The immigrant population, like in all populations, there are some who will break the law.
Immigrants have come to me on a tragically regular basis asking me to do something about crime in their communities. When we deport foreign born criminals, we are not picking on immigrants; we are protecting them. Immigrants come to this country seeking a better life and because the overwhelming majority of immigrants do not break the law, Canada has a duty to ensure that the problems and the crime that many immigrants have left behind in their countries of origin stay there, out of Canada. That is our duty.
Do immigrants who break the law deserve to be doubly punished? No. Should they serve more time because they are immigrants? No way. However, if a non-citizen breaks the law then they have done more than just violate our law, for which the criminal justice system will deal with them. They have also broken a moral contract: they have broken their promise to obey the laws of the country they have adopted and that has adopted them.
As a result of the violation of that contract Canada has the right to say we don't want to include them in our national family. We have the right to view that period of time between the date the newcomer comes to this country and the date they receive their citizenship as a period of probation. If that probation is violated, then there is no onus on Canada to provide a home for that person any longer.
The Reform Party supports quick deportation after conviction. We will support this bill on the condition that the gaping holes in this legislation are plugged by the committee. We will cooperate with the sponsor of this bill to work out those problems, despite the fact that those are huge problems as the bill is presently written.
Today let me speak briefly to one of the big problems in this legislation, and that is the problem of reciprocal agreements with other countries.
This bill says that a criminal court judge can only order deportation back to countries with which we have a co-operative agreement. In other words, the only countries we can deport people to are countries that say they will take them back.
The problem we run into is that a lot of our foreign-born criminals come from countries that are notorious for not taking back their own. What is this bill going to do about that problem, the so-called travel document problem? It does nothing except to give in to it. That is not good enough. It means that a large part of the overall problem will not be dealt with by this legislation.
I do not expect my colleague to be able to single handedly fix that problem, but the government can fix the problem. The inability to secure travel documents is no excuse for not being able to deport.
The Reform Party today is putting this government on notice that we will no longer accept the excuse of not being able to get travel documents. We give away far too much foreign aid for that excuse to be valid. If a country will not take back its citizens who commit crime in Canada, then the minister of immigration should recommend to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that all foreign aid in any form be suspended to that country until they change their tune.
No deportation, no foreign aid: it is a simple solution. Most of the solutions to Canada's immigration problems are simple ones. They only require a little political will.
I thank my hon. colleague for sponsoring this legislation. I hope this gesture has implications within his caucus. I hope we can impress on the immigration minister the need to get serious with immigration policy. So far the minister has not figured that out.