Jim Karygiannis

[Crimes Against Humanity, March 16th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, regarding Motion No. 505, seconded by the members for St. Catharines, Barrie, and Abbotsford from the Conservative Party; the member for Churchill from the NDP; and the member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges from the Bloc; I seek unanimous consent for the following motion. I move:

That this House acknowledge the actions of Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish people in Iraq, including the poison gas attack against Halabja on March 16, 1988, the destruction of Iraqi Kurdish villages, the systematic persecution of Kurds in Iraq, and condemn these acts as crimes against humanity.

[Committees of the House, November 19th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great consideration to my colleague from the Bloc. I thank him for shedding some light and providing his version of where he wants to see the matter of temporary workers and ghost consultants go.

We have a regulatory body of consultants, which is CSIC, the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. There were studies conducted across the country on this issue in the past Parliaments, and they indicated that more teeth have to be given to a new administration for consultants. There was a report done which concluded that consultants should fall under a federal statute as do lawyers, and this government has not looked at that report.

I want to ask my colleague if he would stand and give us the Bloc's position as to where it sees CSIC going. There are no teeth to take ghost consultants to task. Would he also support the notion of a statute, something like the one for lawyers, that would give teeth to regulations? Also, would he support the recommendations in the report to go after ghost consultants, something which the government has not undertaken as it does not care and does not want to implement it?

[Committees of the House, November 19th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we danced around is waiting times.

We are talking about live-in caregivers. It is important to note that although the government wants to zero in on one particular aspect, it wants to do that in order to cover up what really is the underlying factor. The underlying factor is that a lot of our caregivers come from Manila. Under its jurisdiction and under its watch, the rate of refusal from Manila rose from 33% to 66%. It doubled. Many of the individuals who apply to come to Canada have to go to other posts in order to apply.

That being said, I have also noticed my NDP colleague's questioning about the Liberal support or non-support of consultants. It was the Liberal party that brought in the statute in order for us to have CSIC. It was the Liberal Party that moved a motion in order for us to discuss CSIC in committee and make recommendations.

[Request for Emergency Debate, June 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, Tamil Canadians are on Parliament Hill today calling upon the Government of Canada to act in order to help innocent civilians in the recent conflict in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka today, we have people who are residing in refugee camps with little or no medical assistance, little or no clean drinking water, and little or no food. We hear reports of mass graves and over 20,000 people missing. We hear reports of women being raped in these camps, children being separated from their parents, and men being segregated from their wives.

While the government has allocated a pittance for the humanitarian assistance, it has done nothing to further pursue the intervention of the international community to ensure an end to this human suffering. The Government of Canada has done nothing to ensure that the United Nations has access to the refugee camps by humanitarian organizations and independent international journalists. This government also has not worked with the international community to ensure that a permanent solution is found and instituted in order to prevent further bloodshed in Sri Lanka.

Canada is home to one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporas and they are looking to their government and members of Parliament to help provide a solution to their violence-plagued homeland.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I am asking you to permit an emergency debate on this very important issue. If we allow this destruction to continue, it has the possibility of becoming one of the greatest tragedies of our century.

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my colleague from Red Deer the same question that he avoided last time.

We are talking about family class applications and people who have fallen through the grid who are waiting to be processed because, for whatever reason, officials feel their applications are not genuine but are starting families. A young man, let us say the member's son, marries a lady who has fallen through the cracks and is pregnant. It is a simple question, yes or no. Does the member think it is fair for his son to pay $15,000 because his government did not stand shoulder to shoulder with his son in that marriage, yes or no?

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my friend carefully. I know he is a new member so I am going to be kind to him.

The system that we have right now does not work. The system that we have right now is broken.

The member across the way has children of his own or has family that has children. Should somebody be visiting from another country and his child or the child of someone in his family happen to fall in love and get married, they would put the application in at Vegreville, the case processing centre, and for whatever reason, maybe because an i was not dotted or a t was not crossed, that particular application would then be sent to the local office. There is no 60-day referral that my colleague spoke about, no God's will will get the application there within that 60 days. They will probably have to wait for four years before their application is dealt with.

Therefore, my question for the hon. member is this. Should the son of someone in his family find a wife and get married, and that individual is in limbo for four years, and if she were to become pregnant, would the son be eligible, available and willing, even afford, to pay the $15,000 that it takes for the delivery?

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is important because people must feel some pride, must feel some equity, must feel that they belong and are doing something. People must be able to provide for their family. A work permit would allow a person to provide for his or her family, to feel important and that he or she is a contributing member of society, a responsible member of society and an individual who belongs.

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this is not as they would say at Bell, if someone digs a hole, somebody else will find an opportunity to fill it. This is a situation where two people meet, one of whom might be in status, but the couple falls in love and wants to start a family. There is no hole here. There is no magic. It is two young people, or two older people for that matter, who want to be together near the end of their lives and live happily together. There is no hole. There is no magic. It is just two people who, if they are younger, want to start a family or, if they are older, want to find comfort and security with each other. It is just a family. It is the obligation of every member in this House to protect, to nurture and to support those families.

If somebody wants to talk about people who are trying to make end runs on a system and find ways of filling the holes, there is nothing like that in this situation. This is about a first application. The person is given the opportunity to have his or her day with a citizenship and immigration officer. If that officer decides that a person is not bona fide in Canada, then the officer proceeds to remove that person. Until that time, people should not be removed from Canada. People should be given the opportunity to establish themselves, to start a family and to work to support that family. There is nothing more important than for a spouse, a husband, to be able to work and provide for his wife and children. There is nothing more important than for a mother to know that she will not be separated from her three-month-old child and that the three-month-old child will not be forced to go to a country where the child is not going to be treated as a citizen of that country because in fact the child is not a citizen of that country. That child is a Canadian and we are putting the child in harm's way.

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the report addresses the first application. There are people who make a habit of getting involved in marriages that are not bona fide, doing end runs and putting their names out as a spouse a number of times. Those people are a very thin minority. I have spoken to some of them and said that they should not do it and it is going to hurt the rest of the people. That is why this report refers to the first application in a marriage.

If an applicant is, let us say, wife shopping or husband shopping and there are first, second and third marriages, then we know clearly that the individual is not part of a legitimate marriage, does not want to establish himself or herself in Canada and does not want to start a family. This is why it is very important that when we vote on this, members on all sides of the House, especially the government side, understand that this is about the first application and that they do not participate in separating families and putting young Canadian children in harm's way in countries where the medical system virtually does not exist.

[Committees of the House, May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from the NDP for giving me an opportunity to say that it is the only principle, not the key principle but the only principle that we have. It is the only principle that obliges us. It is the obligation of every one of us in this House. Whether we are members in government, in opposition or the third or fourth party, it is our obligation to make sure that we support, nurture and are shoulder to shoulder during the good times, the hard times and the times when young families are trying to stay together. It is probably the toughest decision that has to be made by a family.

I want to go back to the family that I was talking about. The decision was whether the mother would take little Kevin with her or leave him behind. There is absolutely nothing tougher for a mother to have to decide. There would be nothing easier than for a CBSA officer to say, “We will wait and we will not deport you until your case has been heard by citizenship and immigration”. There is nothing easier than the minister making sure we adopt this motion so that the separation of families does not continue.