Mr. Speaker, if the objective of this measure is, among other things, to fight money laundering, the government will have to close all the restaurants and bars in Canada, and also a number of other businesses.
I now come to my question. In my riding, I met a person who told me about a Lebanese bank called Byblos. That bank has branches all over the world, except in Canada. Why? Simply because that bank is based in Lebanon. That is as simple as that. Why? Because, in Lebanon, there is a group called Hezbollah, and in Canada that group is deemed to be a terrorist group.
So, that bank, which is not run by Hezbollah, cannot open branches here because it could potentially have Hezbollah members among its clients.
So, we are preventing a perfectly legitimate institution, which has branches all over the world, from doing business here in Canada simply because it is based in Lebanon, where there is a group called Hezbollah that is considered to be a terrorist group by Canada.
What does the hon. member think of this whole situation? Is it not rather strange?