Chris Alexander

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should get his facts straight before rising in the House.

It is true that Sweden and Germany are welcoming thousands of Syrian refugees but only on a temporary basis. Meanwhile, Canada is once again at the top of the list with its commitment to welcome 1,300 refugees this year. We are following that plan. That is why the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that Canada has the most generous refugee system in the world.

[Foreign Affairs, February 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as the House has heard from statements by the Prime Minister and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs over the weekend, Canada is encouraged by developments over the last two days. The president has been impeached. Several of the key demands of the opposition have been met.

However, right now, unity is absolutely key. Canada stands ready to continue monitoring the situation with its friends and allies and to support a return to democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law in Ukraine, as the Ukrainian people reach out to partners in Canada and elsewhere to resume their democratic path toward a brighter future, one free of violence.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is an unbelievable accusation against a government that has apologized for the head tax and has made China almost our top source for immigration for multiple years now. We continue to receive the largest number of visitors and the largest number of students and to issue the largest number of work permits to citizens of the People's Republic of China. That never happened under the Liberals.

Moreover, we are cleaning up the Liberal mess by eliminating a program that did not achieve its objectives. Education, employment, and tax outcomes for immigrants were lower than all the other economic immigration programs we have, and there was a 10-year backlog left by an incompetent Liberal government. We are still cleaning up their—

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as the member well knows, decisions with respect to refugee determination are made by a highly trained and very independent board. There is recourse under appeal to one level within the Immigration and Refugee Board and then to the Federal Court, where necessary.

We cannot comment on specific cases, but we can confirm to the House what Canadians already know, which is that the reform of our asylum system has been a tremendous success, with an 87% reduction in the number of claims from safe countries. No longer do we have the United States and three members of the European Union among our top 10 source countries.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's citizenship programs have not been reformed in a thoroughgoing way since 1977, since the failed Liberal project that put citizenship on an unreliable foundation was brought into being. We are going to work to bring processing times down below one year in only 18 months and we are going to work to deal with the issues of terrorists, of fraud, of people who join terrorist groups abroad and have dual nationality. We do not think those people deserve Canadian citizenship, and most Canadians agree with us.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, under our new citizenship bill, any revocation of citizenship would be subject to the highest standards and criteria.

The real question we are asking ourselves on this side of the House is this: would the NDP agree that some people have abused the citizenship program, that there have been some cases of fraud in relation to residency in Canada and that the RCMP is currently investigating 3,000 cases linked to this kind of fraud? Would the NDP agree that this problem exists and that we need a solution? So far, we have received no response to that.

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that was a treat, to hear the member opposite's attack on a very respected institution, for which his number one source was The Huffington Post. The member himself did not come to the obvious conclusion that, if he wants to go off the grid, he just needs to leave his phone at home.

It is extraordinary that this representative of the Liberal Party, the party that created CSEC, that brought it into being, that started the whole process of collecting metadata, is now attacking the very mission of its own progeny. Does the member opposite believe that secret intelligence plays a role in protecting us? Does the member not believe that CSEC is accountable to Parliament through the minister, through a commissioner that oversees it, and when it undertakes investigations in Canada, through judicial oversight?

The chief of CSEC was before a Senate committee recently. Would the member opposite please enlighten us? Does he have a single source? He is a former solicitor general of Canada accusing CSEC of actively and illegally monitoring Canadian communications. Does he have a single source, apart from Edward Snowden, who remains a guest of President Putin in faraway, frozen Moscow, who is a fugitive from American justice, and who is even, I think, somewhat disliked by President Obama?

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to listen to the Canadian taxpayers and voters who were very passionate in calling for a reform of our asylum system and who are very happy to see an 87% decrease in refugee claims from safe countries. That is a good outcome.

We have never prohibited refugees with refugee status from receiving generous health care benefits, but fraudulent claimants should not benefit from the generosity of Canadian taxpayers.

[Citizenship and Immigration, January 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the system was broken and outdated when we came into office in 2006. We have done a huge amount to make it better and faster by slashing backlogs by over 50% and reuniting families, parents, and grandparents for holidays and all around the year. Just last year we welcomed well over one million visitors to Canada, 30% to 40% more than in the last full year of the Liberal government.

We are committed to getting those processing times down and to bringing business people, tourists, and students to Canada in record numbers, and we are getting that job done.

[Situation in Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, is the hon. member aware that, according to our current immigration laws, people from Ukraine—or anywhere else in the world—are not eligible to come to Canada if they have committed a crime against humanity or a war crime, if they are a member of a spy or intelligence agency that is targeting Canada, or if they have been involved in incidents that would be considered crimes in Canada?

That is the system that currently applies to anyone who requires a visa to come to Canada.

Instead of talking about measures that Canada can take and that we will continue to consider in partnership with our allies, is the member ready to say that enough is enough, that Russia is interfering in Ukraine's domestic affairs, and that Ukrainians have the right to be in charge of their own affairs without Moscow's input and without nostalgia for the former U.S.S.R.? Does she agree that part of the real problem is Moscow?