Mr. Speaker, we have heard lots of rhetoric today about how good Bill C-63 will be. I am a Canadian by choice. I was 23 when I decided I wanted to come to Canada, be a Canadian and enjoy what this country had to offer and hoping in some small way I could make a contribution back to this great country.
I am concerned about Canadian citizenship and the things we hold dear about our country. They have started to get watered down.
I think of some bills that have been before this parliament recently. In the last parliament, for example, Bill C-49 dealt with the amendments to quite a large number of boards and committees, largely government appointed. We sometimes refer to them as patronage appointees. I picked one dealing with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which is the guardian of our culture in many ways, subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer to $700 million or $800 million a year.
One would think that this protector of Canadian culture would be a truly Canadian institution. However, section 38(1) of Bill C-49 states:
A person is not eligible to be appointed or to continue as a director if the person is not a Canadian citizen—or a permanent resident within the meaning of the Immigration Act.
Permanent resident were the words that were added.
I talked about this bastion of Canadian culture. Now we find that one does not have to be a Canadian citizen to sit on the board of CBC. In this parliament, because that bill died on the order paper, Bill C-44, section 38(1) dealing with the CBC now reads that directors of the corporation are deemed to be employees for the purposes of the pension plan and makes no reference whatsoever to Canadian citizenship, lack thereof or qualifications thereof. I presume we could now have foreigners sitting on the board of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation trying to determine what is Canadian culture and how to develop Canadian culture. It is this type of attitude from the government that tends to debase the concept of Canadian citizenship.
I also want to take up the point that the auditor general raised last year and which the public accounts committee dealt with, the problem of immigration and refugees coming into this country. In response to the auditor general's report at the committee meeting on February 5, 1998 Ms. Janice Cochrane, deputy minister of citizenship and immigration, made the following statement to the public accounts committee:
The auditor general's report identified some important areas where the refugee determination system is not performing up to our expectations. The report questioned the efficiency of the current system. It raised concerns about the level of communication between CIC and the refugee board. It also expressed some doubts about our ability to remove individuals who do not belong in this country.
I do welcome these observations. They are consistent with some of the conclusions that we ourselves have reached at CIC.
Those were the words of the deputy minister of citizenship and immigration when the auditor general pointed out that their policies and procedures were much less than perfect. Hopefully they are now doing something about it but at that time they were not.
I also quote from the auditor general's opening statement to the committee meeting on February 5, 1998 dealing with the removal of illegal refugees and immigrants:
The issue of removals also warrants particular attention. At the end of our audit, the department was able to confirm the departure of only 4,300 of the 19,900 persons who were to have left the country. In short, the process does not grant protection quickly to those who genuinely need it. Furthermore, it does not discourage those who do not require or deserve Canada's protection from claiming refugee status.
Furthermore, we noted that no one in the federal government monitors the overall progress of the claims.
We have heard today how we are dealing with citizenship and not immigration and refugees. However, the point I want to make, again referring back to the auditor general's report of December 1997, paragraph 25.41, is he talks about the huge backlog of 26,000 refugee claims. He points out in paragraph 25.44 that 60% of the people who arrive on our shores claiming refugee status have no documentation of any kind.
I am sure every member in the House knows that when travelling to Canada people do not get on the plane without having a passport or travel documents. Yet 60% of refugees who come off the plane have no travel documents. There was an admission before the committee that sometimes illegal refugees who have been sponsored by couriers and illegal organizations have a passport to get on the plane. A courier is on the plane, picks up the passport and is long gone through customs. They are left with nothing. Now they are here illegally with no documentation. Canadians are being taken for a ride.
Then the whole refugee process kicks into place. It is overburdened. It is not monitored or administered properly. There are backlogs. It takes two and a half years or more to determine that these people are illegal refugees. They are given a deportation order. Then they say that if they are sent back to where they came from, they might get hurt or they might be thrown in prison. An appeal process kicks in and the whole system starts again to determine whether there is a risk in sending them back.
During that time the person gets married, or they have a child. Then they claim they want to stay here under humanitarian grounds. Remember Bill C-63 says that children born in this country are automatically Canadian citizens. Imagine Canada deporting the parents of a Canadian who may be a few months old or one, two or three years old. Absolutely not. They are automatically granted permanent Canadian status on the basis on humanitarian grounds because we took far too long to process the claim.
Clause 10 of Bill C-63 says “The minister may, for the purposes of this act, deem a person who is in Canada and who has resided here for at least 10 years to be or to have become a permanent resident” of the country.
If people want to get into this country by the back door and at the same time have a legal process, they come in and apply for refugee status even though they do not qualify. They work the system and drag it out. They go for the appeal. Then they go for the risk assessment. Then they go for the humanitarian appeal because by this time they have started a family. They wait a few more years and Canadian citizenship is there for the asking. They have totally end-run the entire system.
By virtue of Bill C-63 we are now granting these people automatic entry into Canada. When that gets out we can see a flood of people coming into this country, none of whom would qualify under the rules. Yet Bill C-63 grants them Canadian citizenship after 10 years.
This government by its inability to manage the process properly is subverting and debasing the value of Canadian citizenship. I would hope it would take that seriously, stop it and stop it now.