Mr. Speaker, I applaud the work that my colleague from the Liberals has undertaken and that the citizenship and immigration committee has taken in terms of trying to get some reason and sense into this issue and hopefully a resolution of it. I would like to indicate that I think all of us in the House appreciate the work that they are doing.
I would ask the member if he could address specific comments to the policy issue here that I see as glaring. On one hand we have individuals who are being detained in a grossly contrary fashion to the normal process in this country. They are in a process that does not allow them to make full defence, that does not even share with them what they are actually accused of in full detail, and some of them are now faced with the prospect of staying in custody on an indefinite basis. That is the situation in which they are detained. On the other hand, the detainees are not given even the same level of consideration and basic rights as are people who have been convicted of murder and other serious offences.
Would the member make some comments on what seems to be such an offensive juxtaposition of those two statuses?