Denis Coderre

[Citizenship and Immigration, April 2nd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the program is bad in itself. I do, however, feel we must be very clear on this. Using the Internet for slavery is, to my mind, totally revolting. I have asked my department to look into this. I also feel that we must not confuse the issue. One can promote a program and prevent this type of thing from recurring.

[Citizenship and Immigration, April 2nd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have reviewed the file today and have decided to instruct my officials to allow Ms. Dougherty to remain in Canada on compassionate grounds.

[Citizenship and Immigration, April 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I believe the ones playing Mr. Zundel's game are the opposition members who are trying to give him publicity.

I want to make sure that everybody understands that first of all we respect the process. That individual has been detained and I believe the reason he has been detained is that we are doing our job. Let the process work, please.

[Citizenship and Immigration, April 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I always have a problem when I see that members opposite do not respect the rule of law. We have a process and we must comply with it. To my knowledge, the individual in question is being detained. This must mean something.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned that there are 9 million illegal immigrants in the United States. We are very concerned that there are 314,000 people who are undocumented and we lost track in the United States.

We are very pleased that we have signed a safe third agreement with the Americans. We are very pleased that the Americans who are working on the border are saying that the job we are doing is being well done. We are very pleased the Americans have said, because we are negotiating right now, that the 30 point smart plan at the border is working pretty efficiently. We are doing our job and the Americans feel that we are a great ally.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, it is always dangerous to give the impression that all those who come to Canada without documents are potential terrorists.

Having said that, we must ensure that we have preventive measures. This is why, in Canada, certain individuals are kept in custody. However, we must also use discretion. We must be very careful with regard to what the hon. member is proposing.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, it may be in the interests of some people to indulge in this kind of publicity, but that is not the case for us here. We respect the process and have said right from the start that not only is the individual in question in Canada, but in detention. Let us allow the process to work; we have confidence in it and it will have a positive outcome.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 17th, 2003]

This is a serious matter, Mr. Speaker, so I will not personalize it as the member is doing.

What I am saying is this. First of all when the decision was made, we had already applied the mandamus, so we applied that mandamus for those 102 cases. At the same time we felt that there was room for an appeal based on the content and on the form, so we are going to an appeal.

As a matter of fact I have said since the beginning that under section 74(d) our role is to protect the process. We protect the process. As a matter of fact the same judge certified the question just like we have said. We protect the process but we are respectful of the judicial process too.

[Immigration, February 27th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question.

Not only is Canada a model for refugee protection, but it is envied around the world. I do not think we have any lessons to learn in that respect.

In addition, I have made a commitment to the general assembly of the Canadian Council for Refugees to put forward an appeal system. It is coming. There are resource issues, and there are application issues. We are currently in the development phase.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 26th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, desperate and disturbing are what you call an opposition with only 14% of the popular vote, unable to do its homework or comprehend the Immigration Act.

We respect the rule of law; we respect procedure. There is a process, and I intend to follow it.