Ahmed Hussen

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Chair, we work very closely with the provinces and municipalities through the intergovernmental task force on irregular migration as well as non-governmental organizations. That is the forum in which we address emerging issues. We are aware of the challenge faced by Toronto. I have spoken numerous times with the mayor of Toronto. We are working together with Ontario and Quebec on a triage system that is meant to relieve pressure from Toronto and Montreal with respect to the temporary housing capacity for asylum seekers.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Chair, transforming the whole border into a port of entry would be impractical in terms of providing border and immigration services along its entire length, which is 9,000 kilometres.

[Business of Supply, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Chair, under the safe third country agreement with the United States and the expert opinion of the UNHCR in Canada as well as our own analysis, the United States continues to meet its international obligations with respect to its domestic asylum policy.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Harper Conservatives kept families apart for years. They kept live-in caregivers apart from their families for years. They have recently discovered their compassion for refugees by lecturing us, even though they cut health care for refugees. They have recently discovered the importance of immigration processing, when they kept families apart for years. They have no idea that investment follows talent. Under their watch, talent used to take seven months to get to Canada. Under our watch, it takes two weeks to get to Canada. We are proud of our record.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, our record speaks for itself. If we look at the record of the Harper Conservatives, they kept families apart for years. They kept live-in caregivers away from reuniting with their families for five to seven years. They kept refugee numbers very low. They cut refugee health care, which our federal courts called cruel and unusual punishment.

The irony is lost on the Conservative Party.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we have contacted the organization to allow them to learn the comprehensive nature of our immigration and asylum systems. The consul general in New York will also provide them with more information on all the issues surrounding regular migration to Canada.

We have an aggressive outreach campaign that has been ongoing since last year, which has been appreciated by organizations and diaspora communities in the United States. It is having an impact. We will continue that outreach campaign, and we are seeing a lot of results with respect to that campaign.

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 22nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), during the period of November 4, 2015, to April 5, 2018, IRCC issued a total of 33,044 official passports classed as diplomatic or as special. Of these, 6,749 were red diplomatic passports and the remainder were special passports, green in colour, which are issued for regular official travel.

The passport program processes travel documents, including diplomatic passports, which are issued through the integrated retrieval information system, or IRIS. IRCC is unable to determine how many of the 6,749 diplomatic passports issued during the specified time period were issued to individuals who are neither elected officials nor employees of the government, as IRIS does not track data by category, such as public servant, elected official, family member, private citizen, etc.

Passport legislation stipulates which individuals are eligible for a diplomatic passport. The Diplomatic and Special Passports Order states in section 2(m) that “immediate family members of the holder of a diplomatic passport may be eligible for a diplomatic passport if they are travelling with, or proceeding to join that individual abroad. For example, a diplomatic passport would be issued to the spouse and children of an ambassador being posted to a Canadian mission. Section 2(l) states that “a private citizen may obtain a diplomatic passport if that individual is duly nominated as an official delegate of the Government of Canada to an international conference of a diplomatic character. Subject-matter experts (e.g. scientists, academics) are sometimes named as part of Canada’s delegation to an international conference in order to advise government officials and facilitate discussions with other States. These are the only two scenarios when an individual who is neither an elected official nor an employee of the government would receive a diplomatic passport.”

IRCC cannot issue a diplomatic passport to anyone who does not meet the criteria specified under the Diplomatic and Special Passports Order.

With regard to (b), as per the Privacy Act, IRCC is unable to disclose the names of people who are not public servants or elected officials.

[Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, May 8th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, let us compare our records. Under the former Conservative government, spouses had to wait 26 months to reunite with their family members. We have brought that down to 12 months. Not only that, but we were able to remove 20,000 spouses from the backlog they left us.

Live-in caregivers who provided services to Canadian families, under that party, under the Harper Conservatives, had to wait five to seven years to sponsor their family members. We have cut that down to 12 months. We will take no lessons from the Harper Conservatives.

[Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, May 8th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, promoting the rights and dignity of LGBTQ2 people at home and abroad has been a priority for this government. What was the Conservatives' record when they were in government? They were forced by the opposition to put LGBTQ2 rights back into the citizenship guide after they removed those rights and any mention of those rights under the Citizenship Act.

We have quadrupled the number of privately sponsored refugees so that we can identify the most vulnerable refugees in the world, including LGBTQ2 communities. We have funded the Rainbow Refugee Society so that more LGBTQ2 refugees can be brought to Canada.

[Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, May 8th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, what makes it difficult for refugees is when health care is cut for refugees. What makes it difficult for refugees is when the generosity of Canadians is limited to only 4,500 spots in the privately sponsored refugee program.

We have more than quadrupled those spots, to 18,000, so that more Canadians can sponsor refugees. We have doubled the number of resettled refugees who come to Canada. We have invested more money in the Immigration and Refugee Board, so that genuine refugees can get their claims heard faster. The Conservatives have no clue about compassion for refugees.