Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition with hundreds of signatures concerning the deportation order issued against Jose Figueroa. Mr. Figueroa was a member of the FMLN, a governing party in El Salvador in the mid-eighties. The FMLN is the current ruling party in El Salvador and recognized internationally and by Canada as a democratically elected government.
CBSA and the Minister of Public Safety have ruled that he was engaged in terrorism or subversion, based solely on Mr. Figueroa's affiliation with the FMLN. The current Minister of the Environment represented Canada at the inauguration of the president of FMLN in 2009. The petitioners call upon the Minister of Public Safety to intervene in this case because the charges against Mr. Figueroa are unfounded and contradict Canada's position on the FMLN. They also call upon the government to recognize that the FMLN is a legitimate and representative political party and has been since its inception in 1980.