Mr. Speaker, the member has hit on a key point. The Singh decision and other decisions have said that those who arrive at our borders or even in territorial waters are entitled to the full set of rights that a citizen would be entitled to. I believe that decision does have and impact on this situation.
However, I believe that even with those restrictions in place, this government, if it had the will, could speed up the process to the point that it could process people coming illegally in days or weeks rather than months or years as is now the case. Then detention is not such a big issue. People then are detained for days or weeks. If they choose to appeal it could be longer, but we could speed up the appeals process rather than detaining them for months or years. Therefore we deal with both problems.
We also deal with sending the message to those involved in people smuggling that if they want to make money smuggling people into Canada they are no longer going to be able to do it because, by gosh, Canada deals with these situations quickly, firmly and we act on the hearings while still respecting the UN convention on refugees.
I believe we can respect the UN convention on refugees fully. I believe we can get around the Singh decision, which I believe was a very bad decision, and the other decisions and speed up the process to the point that it will work quite well.
I would further say that if necessary, and I do not believe it is necessary, this government should invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Singh decision and to give control over immigration back to the Government of Canada, to the elected representatives of the people of Canada. The courts should not be making law in this country.
It is interesting that the member who spoke before me talked about the courts making law and I am talking about the courts making law, saying that is clearly wrong in a democracy. Let us give control over policy issues back to the government. The government could take it back. It would be rare that it would involve invoking the notwithstanding clause. It just takes the will on the part of government.