Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be here in this House to express our support for the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, on which I sit with great interest. This fifth report states:
In the opinion of the Committee, the government should declare a moratorium on deportations to Sri Lanka until a safe environment exists there, and that it should expedite any family class sponsorships and refugee claims from the danger zone.
It is important that I begin my speech by reading that proposal, because, after all, we are debating the adoption of this committee report. I was not surprised at the argument put forward by the parliamentary secretary—a man for whom I have a great deal of respect—because I had already heard it during our debate in committee, but I am still a bit confused when I hear him say that we do not need this motion because there is no problem and people are not sent back to places where their lives would be in danger. The government is wondering what the problem is.
So what is the risk to the government in supporting a motion that says that we will not deport people to danger zones where their lives would be threatened? The government says that a procedure is already in place. In fact, there is already a procedure to apply for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds. It is good to have a procedure, but it is administered by human beings who can make mistakes. When we see the images on TV and hear about what people in Sri Lanka are going through, we cannot afford to make mistakes.
The purpose of the recommendation is not to give all these people permanent residence or citizenship automatically, but to declare a moratorium. We just have to say that we will be applying the precautionary principle. Sri Lanka is a hot spot in the throes of a very violent ethic conflict. It goes without saying that we do not want to risk deporting people to these danger zones when they could end up paying with their lives.
Beyond all the fine policies adopted by Parliament and all the structures put in place by the state, we are dealing with human beings. The government must drop its obsession with viewing all issues, including immigration, through the prism of a bureaucratic machine and a regulated operation. We must remember that human beings are involved in these tragedies.
Therefore, the government should not have any difficulty supporting this recommendation, especially if that is already the case, as it claims. If there is not a problem and no one is being deported, why object to formally stating that individuals who could be at risk in Sri Lanka will not be deported to dangerous areas? There is a stubborn refusal to consider the human dimension of the problem and to detach themselves from the purely bureaucratic aspect.
In this House, various political parties and successive immigration ministers, both Liberal and Conservative, often have been asked to use the special powers at their disposal to settle cases where, clearly, the machine did not do what it was supposed to and failed. We sometimes are faced with totally unacceptable situations where we should intervene.
We are not asking the government to do anything illegal. Under our laws, special powers are granted to ministers, precisely so they can intervene and counteract the shortcomings of the system. This does not mean that they reject the system. On the contrary. They are simply acknowledging that the system is managed by humans and that mistakes can be made. If the legislator has included the possibility of ministerial intervention in the legislation, it is because the legislator acknowledged that, no matter how good a system is put in place, mistakes can be made.
Here is an example, and this is not the first time I have raised it in the House. Abdelkader Belaouni is a resident of my riding and an Algerian refugee. He is diabetic and blind and has taken sanctuary in a church rectory for some years now, since January 2006 to be exact, because he is threatened with expulsion to the U.S., from where he would very likely be returned to Algeria.
This man is in an extremely difficult situation, having lost at “commissioner lotto”, a game some of my colleagues may be familiar with. When people make a refugee claim, they play “commissioner lotto”. If a toss of the dice gives them a good commissioner, they may have some chance of getting accepted, but Mr. Belaouni landed on a bad one, Laurier Thibault, who turns down 98% of applications submitted to him. Imagine going before a judge and learning that this judge finds 98% of those who appear before him guilty. One would get the impression that justice was not being served. There is an obvious problem when people end up in situations like that.
The minister has been asked to intercede, and I am asking him once again. I hope that he will do so, that he will have sufficient compassion and intelligence to recognize that the system can be imperfect and that it is not necessary to do away with it, but merely to correct errors that may crop up.
I am drawing this parallel here because it is important. The motion before us today does not say that the system is not working, that it makes no sense, that it is sending people to their death, or that it does not respect our international obligations. It merely points out that the situation in Sri Lanka is of such concern that the most basic prudence would lead us not to take the risk. People's lives are at stake. These are human beings, just like ourselves. They come from the other side of the world, as we can see on a globe. Looking at it, we can see that Sri Lanka is truly on the other side of the world, both literally and figuratively. These are human beings, people the same as all of us, who are seeking refuge here.
This would be the most humane thing to do. This motion must be passed, we must call a moratorium on deportations to Sri Lanka, until security is restored, and this matter must be given careful study. When the context has changed, we will be able to return to the usual procedure. This would reassure these people and would also enable us to say that we have a real concern for the fate of human beings who are living in extremely distressing situations.