Mr. Speaker, this is not a little problem that might arise. This is a problem now that faces every refugee who comes to Canada.
The finance minister introduced this odious head tax as part of his harsh medicine in 1995. The UN high commissioner for refugees has condemned it. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has condemned it.
How does the Prime Minister justify that Canada remains the only industrialized nation in the world to shake down penniless refugees for $1,000 a head?