Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address Bill C-63. I want to concentrate on several issues within it. I will be splitting my time. The member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast will follow me, and all subsequent members from the Reform Party will be splitting their time.
It is necessary to look at the whole citizenship issue in terms of the quality and quantity of citizens in Canada. We first have to ask ourselves what comes first, the citizen or the immigrant. As all of us know the answer is that the immigration system comes first and it dictates the quality of citizens in Canada.
Further to that I think quality of life in Canada is dependent upon the quality of all citizens regardless of their place of origin. As we go along in the evolution of this country we have to keep that in mind. For the six Liberals who are sitting in the House today, not very many listening to their own bill, we will try to make clear to them what the issues are.
Earlier one of our colleagues, the House leader of the NDP, discussed the issue of an advertisement in the Latin Trade Magazine . As a matter of fact I raised this issue some time ago but I just want to further elaborate on it because I feel the same way as he does. The very fact that ads like this are in magazines in other countries does not bode well for this country.
The image is that one can get into Canada regardless of one's status in one's own country. In fact that is quite true. The ad states a person is guaranteed immigration to Canada with the purchase of a fleet rent a car franchise for a total investment of $50,000. It says in the ad that a person is guaranteed immigration to Canada even with a criminal record.
One has to wonder what possesses people in Canada to advertise this in other countries. A while back I had a little talk with this company and I can assure members that what is in here is in fact true. In fact this company takes money from individuals, even if they are criminals; buys some cars and I am sure pockets a good deal of the change; and marks up the value of those cars enough to justify the individual coming into this country. It has closed its doors since we raised this issue or at least its phone calls have been relocated somewhere.
When asked whether or not a person from another country with a criminal record could buy into it, the answer was: “You can get into Canada with criminal records. In fact, if you go from this particular country to Russia and then to Europe, you could probably squeeze into Canada that way and through this sponsorship program”.
I pursued it a lot further than that. The police actually investigated the company. The file was forwarded to the Department of Justice for a decision on whether to lay a charge. Of course the Department of Justice did not lay a charge because it thought there were the usual legal industry technicalities to get away with it under the Immigration Act. It said it could not push it because the Immigration Act was so flexible.
I read the Immigration Act which basically states that in the Immigration Act or in the enforcement of its policies a person with a criminal record in whatever country is precluded from applying to immigrate to Canada.
It also happens there are indications that this particular company is connected to the Russian Mafia. Is this a surprise in the House of Commons? Wrong. The Liberal government knows about the ads. The Liberal government knows how this is working. Yet the Liberal government allows it to continue. When government brings an act into the House, a citizenship act, knowing full well that ultimately those individuals will become Canadian citizens, exactly what does it think those individuals will be doing? Will they become ministers or engineers in Canada? What does it think the citizenship will be after they arrive?
It goes to show that on the surface bills like this one look great. Basically it is platitudes to the rest of us because there is much more wrong with the system today than citizenship. I have attended lots of citizenship ceremonies since I have been an MP. I have attended lots of deportation hearings of criminals. I have been an intervener in those hearings. Yet the government fights harder and harder and spends more money for criminals to stay here than it does for law-abiding citizens who immigrate to this country to stay here.
I would like to tell the House about some of the individuals I have dealt with. When I have be dealing with these individuals I have wondered why the government is hell bent on keeping these individuals in Canada, knowing full well that ultimately they will become citizens. For the five Liberals in the House, I would really like to get my message across.