Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to congratulate the hon. member on his initiative. I know how hard he has worked in order to introduce this private member's bill. His constituents are very fortunate to have him as their representative. He is hard working and I wish him well.
The bill relates to immigrants or refugees in Canada who have criminal records. On the surface the bill would help the government deport those refugees or immigrants immediately after sentencing provided a provision is made to pass the authority to the provinces to deal with this issue.
On the surface the bill makes a lot of sense. It is precise and to the point. However, it causes quite a bit of confusion when one goes a little deeper into it.
The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has already indicated publicly that he supports the intent and the spirit of the bill but has raised a number of concerns which I will reiterate. On November 1, 1994 the minister tabled a document entitled "Into the 21st Century: A Strategy for Immigration and Citizenship". He made a number of comments but I will mention only a couple which I believe are relevant to the legislation before us.
The minister said: "A number of legislative changes will be considered to the control and enforcement provision of the act. For example, currently deportation orders can only be issued by an immigration official. Consideration is being given to authorizing judges to issue deportation orders at the time of sentencing rather than requiring a separate step".
He also said there may be other improvements we can usher into the system. One such recommendation coming from chiefs of police is to permit judges to not recommend deportation at the time of sentencing but to order deportation at the time of sentencing so that the system is leaner and the issues of individuals are all dealt with at the right time and that there is full due process for the individual, counsel and lawyer to react to the judge's ordering of a deportation rather than recommending and then having it go back to immigration and before an immigration appeal division and so on.
In other words, the minister is already trying to streamline the process and make it easier for the justice system to deport people with criminal records who are here as refugees or landed immigrants.
He further stated that as parliamentarians we should be interested in this issue and also be prepared to look at making the relevant amendments if we think the amendments will work, which is very important, and if we think those amendments are fair. The minister supports the spirit and the intent of bill C-316. However, I will outline some concerns of the Department of Justice as well as the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.
Immigration falls under federal jurisdiction when it comes to deliberation and delivery of the justice system. If we were to pass on this jurisdiction to the provincial level there would be a number of problems. The department which deals with the issue of immigration is not the same department which deals with delivery of other relevant aspects of immigration.
If this were transferred to the provinces since this is where the issue would fall under Bill C-316, we would have to introduce training for judges and lawyers in some cases. That would cause more delays. Over and over we have seen cases tossed out of court because they were delayed for too long. It would mean more appeals. We already have an overloaded provincial court system.
When dealing with the provincial justice system we know attorneys can make recommendations to the court based on a number of factors which are not part of immigration agenda but are a part of other aspects of the justice system such as plea bargaining. Judges would then require proof beyond a reasonable doubt which would make the issue before the court difficult to prove.
This legislation contravenes the charter of rights when it comes to challenges. A number of sections could be challenged such as section 11(h) which deals with double punishment. It could be argued that deportation is a second form of punishment in addition to any other sentence; only a non-citizen would be subject to this punishment.
Section 12 deals with cruel and unusual punishment. It could be argued that removing the permanent resident from Canada would offend standards of decency by denying for life the person's right to be with family and friends.
Under section 15, equality under the law, it could be argued that permanent residents were being treated differently from Canadian citizens under the law. Two persons convicted of the same offence would be subject to different consequences based on their immigrant status.
Simply by looking at these recommendations from both the Department of Justice and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, while the intent of the bill is good I suggest my colleague might want to take it back and look at it with the view that if anything is put before the House it should be consistent with the charter of rights and freedoms and should meet the criteria set out by the Department of Justice and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.