Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to table.
The first is related to the spousal sponsorship application process and the TRV application process.
The petitioners note that as it stands right now, the government has a section called 179(b), which basically prevents people from uniting their loved ones if they have a spousal sponsorship application in place. They call on the government to suspend the use of 179(b) so people will not be denied on the grounds that they have strong ties in Canada. They ask the government to put in a special TRV tailored to family sponsorship, to create an ombudsperson to investigate complaints regarding assessments, and to meaningfully implement the promise to help people of Lebanon and process Lebanese applications with visa officers in Beirut instead of Ankara.
The second petition is also on immigration issues. This one is related to the issue of family sponsorship related to parents and grandparents.
The petitioners note that the government scrapped the lottery system for parents and grandparents reunification and recognized it was particularly flawed. However, without any indication or notice, it brought that system back, one it had acknowledged was flawed.
The petitioners therefore call on the government to explain its decision to return to the previously scrapped system of the parents and grandparents sponsorship program based on lottery, to release documents related to the consultations that led to this change, to immediately undertake an open and publicly available study to create a better and just application process and to recognize the positive benefits of family reunification.