Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak today on this very important issue. It occurred to me as I listen to the debate that our country truly is built upon immigration. I think of my riding of Thunder Bay—Rainy River and immigration through the last century in particular, right up to and including the 1980s and 1990s. Like most ridings, Thunder Bay—Rainy River is a very diverse riding with many people having arrived as newcomers. Some are first, second or third generation.
Throughout our long history of immigration in Canada we have gone to extremes at various times. On occasion we have had a very open door policy on immigration. At times we have closed the door. This is a very different situation we are faced with today. The bottom line of what we are talking about is the devastating impact on families. We should be doing everything we possibly can to ensure that families stay together and raise their families here. Quite frankly, this is what Canadians have done for more than a century. We have opened our doors to people from around the world and it is only in our recent history we have said to people that they will have to leave the country in 30 to 60 days. For most of our history we have had an open door policy.
The communities in my riding would never have been built had it not been for Italian immigrants, Ukrainian immigrants and immigrants from other parts of eastern and western Europe. It behooves us to think very carefully about the impact of presuming that people are guilty when they arrive in our country, presuming that people are ne'er-do-wells, that people are here for fraudulent reasons. Granted, there may be an occasional case where that is true, but that is dealt with in the usual manner. What happens is that 99% of others are penalized. It is a question of fairness.
Imagine coming to this country looking for a better opportunity, looking to contribute to society and in the course of being here for six months, a year or two years, falling in love and starting to raise a family. Then the government says that one member of the family has to leave this country. In some cases a mother and children may get to stay in the country, but the husband has to leave. It is a very long and involved process to get back again.
I am not suggesting that the government should not remain vigilant against fraudulent immigration, but I am suggesting to the government that the instances are very, very few.
Canada has a strange policy in that it would deport one spouse. It is hard to believe that Canada will actually deport the person with the precarious status, even though that person is married to a Canadian. As my colleague from Trinity—Spadina said earlier today, the woman might be pregnant, or breastfeeding a baby or has other children. She could be deported, not her children. Sometimes it is the mom, sometimes it is the dad who is deported, but it breaks up the family.
In the last 10 to 15 years in this country everyone talks about the importance of the family and family values. Here is a situation where quite purposefully families are being split up.
It might take a year or two, sometimes a shorter period and sometimes a longer period, for the deported person to come back to Canada. For a couple that has just been married or has only been married for a year or two, to face separation for an extended period of time simply is not fair. Fairness is really what we are talking about today.
On top of that, the couple may have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees and so on. If the person comes from a part of the world that is very expensive to travel to, there are those expenses as well. It may be tens of thousands of dollars before the situation is resolved. Is that fair?
Not only is it hard on the couple, but it is hard on the Canadian public when we consider the government resources that are being used, the tax dollars that are being spent to make all of this happen, when it would be quite simple to say, “Until things are resolved, we are not going to do anything. Just continue to stay with your family. Stay with your spouse. Stay with your children”.
In my riding offices, I do not deal with a lot of immigration issues. However, when I do, I would like to say that the government has been very cooperative in terms of helping me sort out these problems for constituents. When I say that, it astounds me even more that we are even having this discussion today, because it seems to me that we use a whole lot of government resources to sort out things that should not have to be sorted out in the first place.
I would like to conclude by suggesting that this immigration policy has a devastating effect on many Canadians and their loved ones. I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to express my dissatisfaction.