Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend for her excellent speech and the work she does on these and other related issues.
One of the questions that I would like to raise in this debate is what the UN's definition of a refugee actually is, because it is clearly laid out by the UNHCR and in various agreements that a refugee is someone who “has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.” Therefore, when we are talking about refugees, there is a certain sense of persecution entailed in that definition. Sometimes we hear from the government that we should not ask these questions or not look at people's background because of the issue of so-called discrimination. However, if we look at what the UN is saying to us about the definition of refugees, it does entail some element of persecution on identifiable grounds.
Could the member give her perspective on this?