Mr. Speaker, to be clear, the bill proposes to eliminate access to the humanitarian and compassionate process, not for those facing deportation in general but for those facing deportation on the grounds of security, human or international rights violations or organized criminality.
This is a fundamental philosophical difference. The NDP members believe that convicted members of criminal gangs who are foreign citizens should be able to get special consideration to stay in Canada permanently on humanitarian grounds. They also believe that people who according to the IRB have been found complicit in war crimes in their country of origin should be able to abuse our process by making an application for permanent residency on compassionate grounds.
I believe Canadians are hard-headed but soft-hearted. We are compassionate, but we are hard-headed when it comes to foreign criminals and soft-hearted when it comes to legitimate cases of humanitarian and compassionate consideration. I do not believe that a foreign gang member, or a terrorist or someone who has been found complicit in war crimes should get access to our humanitarian and compassionate process. It is an abuse of process.