Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise this morning to deal with private member's Bill C-316.
I know there has been a lot of discussion surrounding this issue in the larger cities of Canada, but make no mistake, this issue is not just of concern to large cities. I represent the people of Souris-Moose Mountain, a rural riding in southeast Saskatchewan. Crime for them is of great concern as it is to all Canadians.
The people of my riding are honest hard working individuals. They work every day to see that the future of Canada is a good one for their children. We are not so different from the people in
Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. We dream of the future and we hope for our children. We feel strongly that we live in the best country in the world and we want to keep it that way.
Let me say that the murders of Georgina Leimonis and Constable Todd Baylis were reprehensible crimes. The sad thing is that these are not isolated events. We should be able to stop these kinds of things from happening in our country. We must work together to see that we reach a balance which protects the rights of individuals and allows for freedoms, but also provides for security for us to live and raise our families and walk our streets in safety.
I congratulate the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. He has done an admirable job this past year and one-half in producing reforms and actions that have and will greatly improve our immigration and deportation system.
Measures contained in Bill C-44 have limited the rights of serious criminals to appeal under the immigration system. However, there still seems to be room for further tightening on the rights of serious criminals. There is still room for a criminal to fall through the cracks between the courts and the Immigration Act.
Many appeals are available to a convicted criminal both through the criminal process and the Immigration Act. Bill C-316 would still permit the criminal to have access to appeals through the criminal process. It would only limit his or her access to the appeals in the Immigration Act. Remember, we are talking about convicted criminals who have committed a serious crime.
This bill applies to criminals convicted of an offence punishable by a sentence of 10 or more years. The measures contained in this bill will accelerate deportation by allowing the court in addition to any other sentence to order the removal of a non-citizen.
It would save the Canadian taxpayer money because the two separate hearings, immigration and sentencing, would not be needed. Instead of two hearings, the courts would decide both the sentencing and deportation. It would not just save money; in the case of Todd Baylis, it may very well have saved his life. We believe strongly in freedom in this country but we cannot allow our freedom to go so far as to limit our security.
Some people have criticized this bill because they believe it punishes non-citizens more than it does Canadian citizens and it treats them differently. Of course this is already true of our current laws. Non-citizens cannot vote. Under the current law non-citizens are already subject to deportation.
The only difference contained in Bill C-316 is that the sole responsibility for both the criminal sentence and deportation would lie within the courts and not within those two bodies, the courts and immigration. Taking out this extra step leaves less room for error, less room for bureaucracy to step in and less room for criminals to get lost in the shuffle.
Let me cite one incident. Mr. Ng, the individual who came from California, ended up in Calgary. There he stayed for five or six years while the taxpayers had to absorb the cost. Hopefully this mechanism put forward by my fellow parliamentarian would alleviate this kind of excessive tax burden on individuals having to put up with dangerous criminals hiding within the existing law.
This bill has been endorsed by the Canadian Police Association and the Metro Toronto Police Association. Certainly that should tell us something. These are the people who come face to face with these problems each day. They are trying to make our streets safer. We would do well to give them a hand.
An additional measure in the bill that ensures fair treatment of non-citizens is the provision that it does not apply to anyone who arrived in Canada before the age of 16 years, as long as that individual remained free of criminal charges for a period of five years. That is a very important feature. We do take responsibility for those who have been raised in our society whether they are citizens or not.
Before concluding let me touch upon a couple of issues that have come forward with regard to party line. Within the framework of this bill we have the ability to cross party lines to support those initiatives that make good sense to all taxpayers.
The member of Parliament for Cambridge has wrestled with the bill. I am sure he is prepared to entertain any amendments that would strengthen it. In that way we can resolve that those people who do not understand it is a right and a privilege to be here and want to abuse both, we would rather not have them as citizens of our country. It would be much better if they were back in their own country.
Concerning the criminal element, we have some real problems. As some amendments go before the committee we will deal with the deportation aspect. I have strong reservations about suggesting that because criminal elements come here from foreign countries that we would then punish those people by removing foreign aid. I would not support that.
The private member's bill by the member for Cambridge is a good one. It has given us reason to think on how we can improve our society.
In conclusion, I support and commend my colleague the member for Cambridge for a job well done. He certainly has the best interests of his constituents and his country at heart. I urge other members of the House to consider the intent of this bill very carefully. We want to make our streets safer. We want to create a society which will continue to be the number one country in the world in which to live, as stated by the United Nations.