Mr. Speaker, once again, it is clear that the member does not understand the current law and does not understand the bill. The current law says that according to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and this is not selective but just cold and hard facts, that a foreign national, in common parlance a foreigner, who is convicted in a Canadian court of a crime with a sentence of six months or more is a serious criminal and that following such a conviction, he or she is subject to removal from Canada. The only question is whether he or she gets years of appeals on that deportation.
We are very careful in focusing on maintaining the six-month bar that already exists in IRPA. If someone goes to a bar and has a bad night and gets into a fight, that person would not be affected by this. People who are convicted of shoplifting are not going to be deported. Those who have a minor fraud count of cheque cutting or a minor traffic offence are not going to get a penal sentence of six months or more. These are for people involved in things like drug trafficking, sexual assault, possession of a dangerous weapon, multiple assaults. These are the cases we are talking about. These are serious crimes according to the law and according to our courts, and they should have serious consequences.