Madam Speaker, I have been advocating for the government to put in place a plan to deal with the influx of people making asylum claims in Canada since January 2017.
For a plan to be effective, we must recognize the global context. We must ensure that our border communities are supported and are safe. We must ensure that the integrity of our asylum system is upheld and that our policies and actions respect the international obligations and the rights and human dignity of asylum claimants.
Nearly two years and later there still is no plan. Instead, the government continues an ad hoc approach. We now have four ministers on the file and we cannot even get an accurate answer on the public record on the state of things. All too often, the Liberal government will say one thing and then turn around and contradict those words with its actions.
Last week was Gender Equality Week. The so-called feminist Prime Minister loves that label, but how can he claim it while remaining silent as the Trump administration engages in a policy that blocks asylum claims based on gender-based violence?
Just to be clear, there are 65.8 million people who are forcefully displaced globally, 25 million of them are recognized by the UN as refugees and 75% of those refugees are women and children.
We all recall how the Trump administration and immigration policy ripped children away from their parents and threw them into baby jails. That resulted in 860 children in the U.S. border patrol holding cells for longer than the 72-hours court-mandated limit. One of those children was held in confinement for 25 days.
Shockingly, three months after the court ordered the children to be reunited with their parents, 100 of those children are still in federal custody. Oh my God, the number of children whose parents have been deported, who the U.S. government has no way of finding, is 26. I cannot even imagine what that is like.
This information should be so upsetting for all of us. It should send shockwaves down the spine of a civilized nation. This should be a wake-up call for those who still want to insist that the U.S. is a safe third country.
The truth is that the Prime Minister's lack of courage in challenging Trump on this gross and blatant violation of international laws and covenants makes us complicit.
A week ago, the Minister of Border Security would not rule out the option of applying the safe third country agreement to the entire Canadian border, as proposed by the Conservatives, effectively suggesting that our borders should be shut down to asylum seekers. Never mind that it would be a violation of international laws, but as if taking a page out of Trump's approach would somehow be good for Canada. This kind of approach by the government has only provided space for divisive anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric to gain a foothold in Canada.
The lack of leadership has allowed space for the Conservatives to mislead and misinform the public on a near-daily basis. It has provided space for anti-immigration measures to find their way into the election platforms of the provinces. Let us look what happened in Ontario, and now the most recent election in Quebec. Surely the government realizes that its approach is not working.
The government should honour Canada's well-earned reputation by showing real leadership and courage. It should exercise Canada's authority by invoking section 10 of the safe third country agreement and suspend it now.