Mr. Speaker, at this late hour, on behalf of the House, we would like to thank you for staying late every night to debate matters of the nation, and we would also like to thank the table officers for doing their job well.
The issue I am keeping you late for tonight, Mr. Speaker, is something that I think is of great importance, and that is what we include in Canada's citizenship guide.
First of all, I want to thank the over 50,000 Canadians who signed the petition to pressure the government to keep references to female genital mutilation in Canada's citizenship guide. This was spurred by a report that came out in July 2017. It was written by a Canadian Press author and published in the Toronto Star. If I am citing the Toronto Star, there must be an issue here.
The article talked about the fact that there was a leaked copy of the citizenship guide. It said:
In the draft version, the reference to barbaric cultural practices is gone, as is the inclusion of getting a job as one of the responsibilities of citizenship.
After months of bashing my head against the wall, and after 50,000 signatures, we managed to get the government to do the right thing. It has said that it is going to include FGM in the citizenship guide. Why I had to spend all of my parliamentary time getting the government to do that is beyond me. It is actually bananas that this was ever going to be removed from there.
Now, there is the other half of that statement. In the draft guide, the inclusion of getting a job as one of the responsibilities of citizenship is being removed from the citizenship guide. Can members imagine that? Newcomers are coming to Canada, and getting a job is not a responsibility. I do not understand that.
In fact, the sponsorship agreement for Canadians who raise private money to sponsor refugees to come to Canada has been changed by the Liberal government as well, and the section that used to say that finding a job or becoming self-sufficient is a responsibility of refugees now says that it is aspirational. The sponsorship agreement has also been changed such that if a refugee refuses a reasonable job offer, the sponsors cannot withhold funds.
I am just wondering, with this change in the citizenship guide and the sponsorship agreement, why the government has decided all of a sudden to move Canada's immigration system away from that principle. I believe in immigration. We should have more immigration. Immigration is what is going to make Canada's future prosperous, if it is done in a planned, orderly way.
However, what the government has done is move Canada's immigration system away from that principle and toward one of entitlement. With these changes, the government is focusing on entitlement rather than contribution and self-sufficiency.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is very simple. Will he give credit to the 50,000 people who signed petitions, bashed their head against the wall, and made the Prime Minister do the right thing and keep this in the citizenship guide? Will he thank them, and will he also ensure that having a job as a responsibility of new Canadians is also included in the citizenship guide?