Mr. Speaker, I used to work for a member of Parliament, Dan Heap, who was the immigration critic in the early 1980s. We started a campaign then to say that spousal sponsorship can be done in Canada. I know the history of this file.
In the early 1980s, after that campaign, the spouse could in fact apply in Canada. The Liberals changed that later on.
I know the history very, very well. For 13 years, they did not quite get it done. They did not get it done properly. Perhaps they tried, but right now the Conservative government is in front of us and whatever did not get done still needs to be fixed. It does not matter what the history is anymore. I could go on for a half hour to tell the House the sorry history of spousal sponsorship in Canada and outside Canada.
However, today we have a motion from the immigration committee, which is approved by the majority of the members, that says we should not deport spouses while their applications are being processed in Canada.