Mr. Speaker, the member talked about crime decreasing, but youth violent crime has been rising, as I am sure the member knows, particularly among young women. If he doubts that, he can get on the Internet and look up the website for North Shore News . He will find an article within the last two weeks with plenty of statistics for the Vancouver area.
In addition, the member talked about how Citizenship and Immigration Canada strives to protect Canada's borders and to do screening during entry. Yesterday afternoon on Vancouver's top radio station, CKNW, a Mr. Johnston from Citizenship and Immigration Canada was on the line for an hour. I invite the member to call in and get a transcript of the program. He will find out that it is just not so.
Certainly fingerprints of refugee claimants are taken at the port of entry. What happens is that those fingerprints are sent to Ottawa where they are hardly ever checked. During a recent drug arrest in downtown Vancouver when 80 Honduran refugee claimants were arrested for drug trafficking, a local policeman from the Vancouver area took it upon himself to check the criminal records of these claimants. He found that 20% of them had criminal records in the United States. Yet here they were coming into Canada. It is absolute bunkum.
The member would have us believe that things are getting better by talking about how the number of deportations has risen 67%. I am not the least bit surprised. Probably the number of criminals getting into Canada has gone up by at least 67%. If the member doubts it, he needs only to come out west, take a little visit to the Vancouver area and find a dose of reality, what is really happening out there.