Mr. Speaker, it was interesting for me to listen to the Minister of Immigration's speech. I do note a change in his tone with respect to these issues, and I appreciate that change in tone. However, I do want to get his comment on something he said here in question period on October 5. He said:
Mr. Speaker, we do not know how many Yazidi refugees have come to Canada, because when refugees come to Canada, we do not ask them their ethnicity or their religion. We do not discriminate by religion or ethnicity.
What concerns me about that is that the minister does not really seem to appreciate, in that statement at least, the importance of the refugee definition, being that we take those who are most vulnerable and those who face persecution on the basis of identifiable characteristics. It seemed as well that the parliamentary secretary said something a bit different in his speech. He said that we do not track these things. It sounded like he was saying that we do ask the questions up front, but we just do not track it afterward.
I want to ask the minister to clarify. Does what he said on October 5 still hold? Is what he said correct or is what his parliamentary secretary said correct? Do we ask these questions? Will the government finally begin to keep track of the level of vulnerability of those who come to this country?