Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise to thank the hon. member for Vancouver East for her work on this. I could spend a lot of time going into all of the points, because I certainly agree that we should have been dealing with the issue of lost Canadians.
Given the speeches we have heard tonight from the Conservative ranks, with the demonization of people who would be so vile as to lie as they apply for citizenship, I just want to ask the hon. member a question. She and I deal with real-life situations. People who are disempowered and disadvantaged do not think they are necessarily lying but they are in desperate circumstances.
I will give one specific example and ask the member to comment. I will not say what country this person was from, but culturally and religiously, she was stigmatized by the fact that she was an unwed mother. She received lots of bad advice that when she applied to come to Canada to join relatives, she should not disclose that she had a child. She was assured that she would be able to apply later to bring her child with her. She is now forever barred from bringing her child to Canada, because she did not disclose she had a child when she came.
These are heartbreaking, real-life situations, and no harm comes to Canada by being willing to accept that someone made a mistake when they falsified an application. Does the hon. member for Vancouver East have any comments?