Madam Speaker, citizenship and other issues of the day need to be done right with absolutely no mistakes. If we look back to the bleak moments of Canadian history there have been times when we have done the wrong things. Certainly in terms of my own ethnic background, there was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923.
I will not say that we should compare this to it. That is not the point. The point is that we cannot make a mistake in terms of how we deal with Canadian immigrants from all over the world who come to this country. We have to do it correctly. People have to be treated on an equal footing. Long gone are the days when politicians can decide who they can discriminate or not discriminate against.
We have set ourselves up as a country to be the model for the world. Citizenship is one of the keys in becoming the model society for the world. If we are to do the talk then we need to do the walk. Doing the walk is making sure that this legislation is correctly done. We will all be happier for it as will the rest of the world. It will not only be people in this country because other people look to us for guidance.