Mr. Speaker, I will point out a couple of things and then I will ask a question.
I am an immigrant. I immigrated to Canada in 1968. I guess the parliamentary secretary thinks I would stand up and slander myself. He says we slander immigrants, which I totally object to.
A good deal of our caucus consists of immigrants and they are valuable and good Canadians. There was a quote from the country I come from that I was reminded of recently and I will pass it on to this parliamentary secretary.
The person said remember that we have two ears and one mouth and only one of them was meant to close. I hope that some of these people, particularly the parliamentary secretary, will remember that when he is sitting and supposed to be listening to speeches. He will have his turn to talk, I am sure.
I express to the member that we went through quite a lengthy process when I came to Canada in 1968 with regard to obtaining our citizenship. I thought it was valuable. I thought it was worthwhile and it is something that should be done. It is something that has ceased being done to the extent that it was in 1968. I thought it was great the way they did it in the years we arrived. Now they have become very loose and very different which has not been positive for this country.
Does the member feel we need to strengthen the qualifications for citizenship in comparison to what they used to be? Does he believe there should not be any screening at all? The parliamentary secretary seems to believe that if we do screen, we are slandering these people. I would like the member's comments on that.