Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this motion. I want to begin by thanking my hon. colleague, the member for Burnaby—Douglas, for his committed work and compassion on this file.
This is a very serious matter. We have in front of us three detainees who have been on a hunger strike for at least 70 days; in fact, one of them has been on a hunger strike for over 80 days. Unless we act, unless we respond, we could have a tragedy on our hands. We must accept the seriousness of the situation and deal with it with the utmost urgency and compassion.
Let me very clear about the motion that we are discussing today. This is not an issue of the security certificate. There are a lot of question marks about the security certificates. There are a lot of question marks about the procedures that are within the security certificates. There are question marks about the evidence, about access to testing that evidence. There are plenty of question marks about the security certificate procedure. But that is not what we are debating today. We are debating a very concise and clear motion.
The motion states:
Therefore be it resolved that the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration:
a) acknowledge the emergency nature of the hunger strike and open discussion with regard to a resolution;
b) call on the Government of Canada and the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to mandate the Office of the Correctional Investigator, which has jurisdiction over all federal inmates except for those held at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, to now assume jurisdiction over the KIHC, investigate current and ongoing complaints of those currently on hunger strike,--
Then it goes on to list six grievances that the detainees have been voicing and then the main reason for their hunger strike.
The motion is very specific. It is very clear and it offers a compromise. It offers a logical solution to addressing these issues. The last thing we want as Canadians, the last thing we want as members of Parliament, is to have a death on our hands because we refused to acknowledge or address some petty or simplistic conflicts that could be resolved easily. We must push the government to realize the seriousness of the situation and to act appropriately.
Members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration visited the detainees at the centre yesterday. We spoke with the administrators before we met with the detainees and then we spoke with the administrators after our meeting with the detainees. We learned a lot.
We had the opportunity to speak in private with the detainees. We saw that they are visibly exhausted, that they are visibly tired. We heard their complaints. We saw that this is a very serious matter.
These individuals are not doing this for a publicity stunt. These individuals are serious and appear to be raising legitimate concerns.
The administrators also appeared to have been taking this issue seriously. They were willing to discuss the matter. They were willing to find resolutions, which I might add is a lot more than the government is providing today. The administrators were keen on finding a way to resolve this issue. We must put pressure on the government, on the executive, to find a way to deal with the situation.
These demands, these requests, are very logical and in fact do not contradict any of the laws. One of the answers that came out in the discussion that we had with the administrators yesterday was that IRPA was silent on how to deal with detainees. Therefore, there is no legislative framework. There are no legislative reasons not to apply the correctional commissioner to investigate these complaints.
In fact, we found that there appears to be some selectiveness in what rules to apply. On the one hand, they appear to be applying the rules that apply to the general population in prison but, for some reason, other rules do not apply because this is considered an immigration holding facility.
There appears to be a double standard here. We really need to think long and hard about what we are doing. We need to ensure that this does not extend into a tragic situation, that this does not lead to a death or a tragic outcome.
I join my colleague here today and I call on my colleagues in the House of Commons to support this motion. I ask members to vote in support of this motion and extend this reasonable proposal to have a correctional investigator look into these complaints and hold an independent inquiry.
I know that the parliamentary secretary has explained that there is a grievance process to deal with these grievances. The reality is that it is an internal process. As my hon. colleague has said, this does not provide for at least an appearance of objectivity.
We must appeal to both sides to have these issues handled objectively and independently. The executive cannot investigate itself or, obviously, there will be question marks about its judgment.
What is needed is an independent individual such as the correctional investigator. If the correctional investigator is unable, incapable or not allowed, then let us find someone else. I think it is very reasonable to appoint an independent observer and mediator to look into this matter.
In fact, the correctional investigator himself has said that the detainees no longer have the benefits and legal protections afforded by the ombudsman's legislation.
This is a serious matter. I know the detainees are probably watching the proceedings today. They are very interested in the discussion that goes on in the House. We must send a signal to the detainees that as Canadian lawmakers we are proud of our country and our laws. We must let the detainees know that we have a humanitarian side to our laws.
Even if we as members disagree on the nature of our laws, even if we are still debating security certificates in the courts or in Parliament, we can still be compassionate and address these humanitarian concerns.
Yesterday, when we met with the detainees, we did plead with them. We asked them to find an opportunity to end their hunger strike. We told them that Canadians are very interested in their case and concerned about the situation. We said that many of us in the House of Commons and other Canadians are doing whatever we can to have their concerns addressed. In the meantime we hope that the detainees find the opportunity to end their hunger strike, so that we do not end up with a tragedy.
I support the motion. I call on my colleagues from all sides of the House to support the motion. Hopefully, by doing so, we can illustrate to Canadians and to the detainees that we are serious about their concerns, and that we are doing whatever we can to address them.