Mr. Speaker, I have in front of me a Vancouver police report which is a wake-up call for the Minister of Immigration.
The report lists 32 foreign nationals who were referred by police to immigration authorities after all 32 had engaged in criminal activity in the city of Vancouver in just one 24-hour period on November 20, 1997.
The failure of the Immigration and Refugee Board to promptly deport criminals is directly responsible for as many as 9,000 assaults, drug charges and weapons offences by foreign nationals each year in Vancouver alone.
The minister recently appointed the president of the North Vancouver Liberal Riding Association to an $85,000 a year patronage position on the IRB. It is about time she cut out the patronage and started fixing the problems instead.
How many more crimes, how much more cost to taxpayers, how much more violation of our borders do we have to put up with before the minister will act?