Mr. Speaker, yesterday, during question period, I directly quoted from a document signed by the Minister of Finance, and I feel honour bound to table that document. I ask the House's permission to do so.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 53% of the vote.
Points of Order December 4th, 2009
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, during question period, I directly quoted from a document signed by the Minister of Finance, and I feel honour bound to table that document. I ask the House's permission to do so.
Justice December 3rd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, on December 20, 2000, the current finance minister wrote in a letter:
Federal hate crimes legislation offers protection only on the basis of race, religion and ethnicity. This...would make it difficult to proceed with a prosecution for alleged hate crime relating to gender....
It is time for the federal government to provide such tools to prosecute those promoting hatred against women.
Why have the Conservatives vetoed the efforts to add sex to hate crimes legislation, not once, not twice, but three times?
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act December 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, other than our indigenous peoples, our first nations, all the rest of us in Canada are recent arrivals. We either arrived ourselves or are the descendants, the sons and daughters of wave after wave of arrivals to Canada's shores over the last few centuries.
The assumption is that all of these arrivals to Canada were immigrants, when in fact, especially during the latter part of the 20th century, a large proportion of those who arrived on Canada's shores were refugees, those who were seeking sanctuary.
I am the son and grandson of refugees. In the years after World War II, my father and my grandparents on my father's side were in a displaced persons camp in Italy. On my mother's side, they were in a displaced persons camp in Germany. In the years after the war, Canadian government officials arrived in those camps, they took notes, reviewed documents and my parents and grandparents were among the lucky few who received travel documents to come to Canada.
They came across the Atlantic and arrived on freedom's shores, Canada, where they could live in freedom and democracy, work hard and build a new life.
Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. Many of those who found themselves in those displaced persons camps, the refugee camps, were sent back to the Soviet Union, except they never arrived home. They ended up mostly in Siberia and most ended up dead.
Canada has a tremendous legacy of welcoming and accepting refugees, whether it was post-World War II in 1956 from Hungary or more recently Vietnamese refugees from the Philippines and Burmese refugees from camps in Thailand.
However, over the past half century it has become a little more difficult to figure out who in fact are bona fide refugees. It is no longer the case that we have officials who go to refugee camps and those are the sole source of refugees to Canada. Today, anyone, anywhere on the planet from any country can buy a plane ticket, arrive at a Canadian airport and claim refugee status or they can arrive in Canada, stay here for a while, check things out and then decide to make a refugee claim.
The system is not working, especially over the past couple of years where our backlog has increased by some 18 months and we have ended up with a backlog of approximately 8 years and over 60,000 refugee claimants.
There is a huge cost to this dysfunction in the system of approximately $30,000 for every refugee claimant. At the same time, statistics show that about half of those claims are bogus. That is a cost to the Canadian taxpayer of some $900 million, $100 million per year over the next eight years. That is a huge cost.
There is another cost to the current dysfunction. Real claimants, those who are seeking refuge from totalitarian regimes, dictatorships, those individuals and their families have to wait years in anguish not knowing whether they will be sent back to a country where they could be tortured or worse. The system has to be fixed. That is why I will be supporting Bill C-291.
The bill would provide greater efficiency in our refugee system. The refugee appeals division would be a specialized appeal division as opposed to the federal court. It would increase the efficiency of the system, while still ensuring the humane treatment of those in need of protection. It would enhance the reputation of our system. The implementation of an appeal division would improve public perception of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
As well, the federal court, where appeals go today, does not specialize in refugee matters. Advocates for the RAD system would have expertise in refugee determination. There would be greater consistency in decision-making. The creation of a specialized RAD would allow for consistency when reviewing the facts of decisions.
The judicial review of an IRB decision is more limited in scope than an appeal contemplated in the RAD. The court cannot replace a decision by the IRB with its own judgment.
We cannot continue with the system that we have in place today, up to eight years to finalize a claim. We are in a cycle. People note that it takes this tremendous length of time, so frivolous claims are made so they can extend their stays in Canada year after year.
The bill envisions reforms that would provide three new pillars to our refugee system. First, it would start with a good first decision. Second, it would allow for a reliable appeal. Third, it would allow for the prompt removal of failed claimants. As well, tribunal members would be appointed solely on merit.
By creating a strong system, the pre-removal risk assessment and back end humanitarian compassionate applications we see so often today and their associated judicial reviews could be removed from the system. Under the proposal, refugee claims would be decided in approximately six months, reviewed most likely in the subsequent four months and removals, should they be necessary, within three months after a negative appeal decision.
We are dealing with an immigration system in Canada that currently is broken. Canadians want us to enact a fulsome package of reforms. Unfortunately, the government has not come forward with such a fulsome package.
However, in the lack of the aforementioned, we have an opportunity to address one aspect of this broken immigration system, the broken refugee system. We must have a system that is just, that respects and meets Canada's international obligations to protect refugees and that re-establishes the confidence of Canadians in our system.
Canadians are a people who above all believe in fairness. They would like to see a refugee system that is fair. We deserve to have a refugee system that works, a system that respects due process, ensures avenues of equal opportunity and provides safety for individuals who are in need of protection.
That is why, as a son and as a grandson of refugees, I will be supporting Bill C-291.
Resumption and Continuation of Railway Operations December 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As you well know, in the chambers of the Speaker of the Senate, unfortunately one does not hear the bells and the calm of the Senate side is not broken by the Commons bells. Unfortunately, I was not here for the vote, but I would have voted in favour.
Ukraine December 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, that is a symbolic gesture, not a real commitment. Sixty is one-tenth of 2004's number.
Mr. Davidovich, the former deputy chair of Ukraine's electoral commission, who refused to sign off on the previous fraudulent results, recently came to Ottawa. Our House gave this democratic hero a standing ovation. He is terribly worried. He flew here from Kyiv to raise the alarm.
In 2004, Canada showed international leadership. Canadians were heroes in the streets of Ukraine. However, last week the minister refused to meet Davidovich. Why? Why will she not listen to his expert advice?
Ukraine December 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, Canadians remember with pride the role that our 1,000 observers and mission leader, former prime minister John Turner, played during the 2004 election in Ukraine.
In January 2010, the first presidential election since the Orange Revolution will take place. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has asked for Canada to send 500 observers this time but the minister only announced 60. The congress is disappointed and the NGOs in Ukraine are worried.
In 2004, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine. Why not in 2010?
Holodomor Memorial Day November 26th, 2009
Madam Speaker, at the height of the Holodomor, the Kremlin-engineered famine genocide in Ukraine of 1932-33, Zina, a village girl, wrote to her city-dwelling uncle:
We have neither bread nor anything else to eat. Dad is completely exhausted from hunger...unable to get on his feet. Mother is blind from the hunger. Uncle...Please do take me, please. I'm still young and I want so much to live a while. Here I will surely die, for everyone else is dying...
When the uncle received the letter, he was told of her death.
Hundred by hundred, thousand by thousand, million upon million lay down their starved skin-and-bones bodies and became one with Ukraine's fertile black soils, their life extinguished.
On November 28, we memorialize the Holodomor. All our resolutions and our statements of responsibility to protect are nothing more than fine-sounding rhetoric unless each of us makes a pledge of a responsibility to intervene, to act when genocidal crimes occur.
[Member spoke in Ukrainian as follows:]
Bil'sh nikoly.
[English]
Never again.
Ukraine Presidential Election November 19th, 2009
Mr. Speaker, today we welcome Mr. Yaroslav Davydovych.
Mr. Davydovych is the former chair of Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission. He was almost singularly responsible in not accepting the fraudulent second round results of the Ukrainian presidential elections in 2004. He did this at great potential danger to himself and his family.
He alone refused to sign the official tabulation of voting results that would have made the fraudulent elections official. Mr. Davydovych's principled integrity led to a constitutional impasse and a Ukrainian Supreme Court review of the elections. He alone among officials provided critical evidence during the Supreme Court case, while as many as half a million protested during those historic weeks of the Orange Revolution.
He is in Canada to warn of the need for vigilance in the upcoming January 2010 presidential elections and of the need for adequate assistance from Canada's government to ensure that the democratic free will of the Ukrainian people prevails.
I know that all colleagues will want to join me in welcoming Mr. Yaroslav Davydovych to Canada.
Boris Cikovic November 18th, 2009
Mr. Speaker, I recently attended a candlelight vigil for Boris Cikovic who was gunned down in a local park by teen thugs trying to rob him.
The murder of Boris forever shattered the lives of his parents Vesna and Davorin and his many friends.
Soon after I was first elected, this lighthearted teen came into my office pointing out that “Borys” was misspelled on the office sign.
What is especially tragic is that the Cikovices were refugees from the horrific war in Bosnia. They escaped to the presumed safety of Canada to start a new life far from the guns and bullets of Sarajevo.
Their Canadian dream was shattered a year ago when Boris took a bullet into his very heart.
The accused killer refuses to cooperate with police and identify three others who were with him, and he is out on bail. The Cikovices struggle with the unbearable knowledge that they are possibly passing the cowardly perpetrators of this murder on the streets in their very own neighbourhood.
As legislators, let us work to ensure that the streets of our cities are free from guns and bullets.
Mr. Speaker, the H1N1 pandemic is now in full bloom in Canada. Canadians are scared. Over the last couple of weeks, Canadians have been getting sick and Canadian children have been dying. The pandemic train has left the station.
Unfortunately, the immunization program has just arrived in chaos. Why have other countries like the United States been able to roll this out weeks in advance? Even countries such as China have begun immunization weeks before Canada. Perhaps the parliamentary secretary could answer.
The minister had said that, by Christmas, not a single person would be left out. Would the parliamentary secretary be able to look in the eyes of the parents of children, the 13-year-old and the 10-year-old who have already died, and all those Canadians who will get sick and die over the next couple of months and say that this is truly good enough?