Mr. Speaker, I very much wish the amendments would have been part of the main motion.
First, it is really important what language we use when we deal with citizenship and immigration. It is okay to refer to the landing fee as a bad public policy, but we should never call it a head tax because that ends up diminishing the suffering resulting from a very racist piece of legislation. I am sure my colleague would agree that the landing fee is not racist, but it might be a policy with which he disagrees.
The member mentioned the new Citizenship Act, and I know his thoughts on the issue; it is wrong for politicians to take away citizenship without right to appeal and outside of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. My thought is that it is just as wrong to wholesale give people citizenship by a stamp of the minister. What is the criteria for making that decision?
We will be going through a process where tens of thousands of people, who should be Canadian citizens but because of sexist and anti-charter policies, have lost their citizenship. When we return those citizenships, it should be done by legislation, so it does not depend on the goodwill of a minister, but by law, a law on which we have all agreed.