Leon Benoit

[Immigration, October 19th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the government should be taking control of this issue. Already one of the four bogus refugees has disappeared and the rest are sure to follow. The minister thinks it is okay to detain claimants until they are deemed not to be refugees and then let them go.

This does not make sense to me. It does not make sense to most Canadians. Can the minister explain how this makes sense to her?

[Immigration, October 19th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, after processing only four of the six hundred migrants who arrived on our shores this summer, the IRB has denied all four refugee claims and then released them. I want to repeat that. It has deemed they are not refugees and then released them.

It would seem that the government is determined to assist the efforts of organized crime by releasing claimants whether or not they are refugees. How could the minister allow bogus refugees to be released in Canada, knowing that they are likely to disappear?

[Immigration, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, even if the minister manages to get the initial hearings completed in a year, the appeals process will take years. These people will spend a significant portion of their lives in detention camps set up by the government. I find this to be unacceptable. Further, every Canadian knows that the longer the process takes, the more it is going to cost taxpayers.

I want the minister to tell Canadians how much it is going to cost taxpayers to complete this process.

[Immigration, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I talked to the immigration officials in B.C. and they informed me that only four of the 600 Chinese migrants have gone through their initial IRB hearings. Do the math. At this rate the initial hearings of the 600 Chinese migrants will not be completed until 2034.

The minister assured Canadians that extra resources would be dedicated to expedite the process. Is this the minister's idea of expedience?

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the hon. member to comment on something I find very interesting.

There has not been one question or comment on his presentation from the members opposite. We see members from Vancouver, members from Toronto, members whose constituents are upset that the government has taken no action on the issue. Obviously government members must have been told to keep quiet on this very serious issue. The Liberals are afraid to tackle difficult issues and this is a difficult issue.

I would like the member to comment on the government's handling of this issue, in particular that none of the government members are willing to ask a question or make a comment on the issue.

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the member has hit on a key point. The Singh decision and other decisions have said that those who arrive at our borders or even in territorial waters are entitled to the full set of rights that a citizen would be entitled to. I believe that decision does have and impact on this situation.

However, I believe that even with those restrictions in place, this government, if it had the will, could speed up the process to the point that it could process people coming illegally in days or weeks rather than months or years as is now the case. Then detention is not such a big issue. People then are detained for days or weeks. If they choose to appeal it could be longer, but we could speed up the appeals process rather than detaining them for months or years. Therefore we deal with both problems.

We also deal with sending the message to those involved in people smuggling that if they want to make money smuggling people into Canada they are no longer going to be able to do it because, by gosh, Canada deals with these situations quickly, firmly and we act on the hearings while still respecting the UN convention on refugees.

I believe we can respect the UN convention on refugees fully. I believe we can get around the Singh decision, which I believe was a very bad decision, and the other decisions and speed up the process to the point that it will work quite well.

I would further say that if necessary, and I do not believe it is necessary, this government should invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Singh decision and to give control over immigration back to the Government of Canada, to the elected representatives of the people of Canada. The courts should not be making law in this country.

It is interesting that the member who spoke before me talked about the courts making law and I am talking about the courts making law, saying that is clearly wrong in a democracy. Let us give control over policy issues back to the government. The government could take it back. It would be rare that it would involve invoking the notwithstanding clause. It just takes the will on the part of government.

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak in response to the throne speech on the issue of immigration.

Immigration issues were some of the issues that were in the forefront. Certainly they were issues that were most important to Canadians over this past summer. Yet it received only five words in the throne speech, five words that were tucked away in a long statement. Clearly the government is out of touch with Canadians when it comes to dealing with issues that are important to them. The government has shown this by its neglect in the throne speech.

There was not even a broad statement in the throne speech on what the government intends to do with immigration. That is real neglect on the government's part. Just to back this up, Angus Reid released a poll yesterday which shows that when we look at issues most important to Canadians right now, health care is the number one issue and immigration is the number two issue across the country, tied with taxes. We all know that taxes are of high importance to Canadians. They want taxes to be lowered.

Twenty per cent of Canadians see immigration as the most important issue to them, up from 3% in the last poll that Angus Reid did. I believe the reason for this is that Canadians have recognized the government's bungling in terms of dealing with the issue of illegal migrants over this past summer, in particular illegal migrants coming by boat, although certainly at the airports and borders as well. Only 5% to 10% of all people who come illegally to our country come by boat. The rest come through the airports or across the borders.

Canadians have finally recognized that our government losing control over people coming into the county is a real threat to national security. It is a true threat to national security. I believe this issue has moved up to occupy second place when it comes to issues of importance to Canadians.

If we look at cities like Vancouver and Toronto, immigration right now is by far the most important issue to people in those cities. It is an issue which the government completely ignored despite having 41 of 43 seats in the greater Toronto area and having seats in the Vancouver area. I think it is really shameful neglect.

Our immigration system today is dysfunctional, not only in terms of dealing with people coming into the country illegally but also in terms of dealing with those that we want to attract through our immigration system the people who are designated as people Canada wants to attract by the immigration department. Our system is completely dysfunctional when it comes to those people we want to attract and that is what I intend to talk about today.

I want to start with the government's handling of the whole issue of illegal migration over the summer. With this summer's arrival of illegal migrants by boat, about 600, which represents only 5% to 10% of illegal migration, what was the government's response? The government's response to this very serious breach of national security, this loss of control over our borders, was silence.

After prodding from the official opposition and from Canadians across the country the minister said “I am going to expedite the system. I am going to make it so that the people coming by boat illegally will have a hearing within six to seven months rather than the eleven month average we have now”. That is only the initial hearing. It has nothing to do with appeals. That timeframe does not include appeals. An appeal could take a year or more beyond that. We have seen appeals lasting for years and years. It is not that uncommon any more.

The government's response was to expedite the process. That process has been expedited so much that as of last week out of the roughly 600 people who came by boat only 4 have gone through the process. I am talking about just the initial hearing. We have had no appeals so far.

What is the significance of this system taking so long? The significance is certainly high to Canadians generally, and to those who have had their lives put into limbo through this process that is so dreadfully slow.

We have people who have come to this country believing in many cases that they are coming to establish a new life. Certainly they know that they are using illegal means to get here in most cases, but they do not understand that they will be led into a life of servitude, that they will be a part of a virtual slave trade, the new slave trade. For this to be happening is shameful. We will look back in history 30 or 40 years from now and wonder how Canada could have been so negligent in handling this situation.

The people who have come will have their lives put on hold for months and years, and then many will be deported back to their countries of origin. What will be left for them two or three years down the road? I would suggest very little.

In the meantime, what about Canadian taxpayers? They are footing the bill for this system that is not functioning well at all. They are paying millions and millions of dollars because the process is so slow and so flawed. It is shameful. By ignoring this in the throne speech the government has demonstrated that it is just not willing to deal with tough issues such as this. I think we need a government that will show some leadership.

Members of the Reform Party do not only criticize, we also propose positive solutions. What we proposed over the summer, and in fact over the past six years, is that first we should detain all people coming to this country until their hearings, but that the hearings be held within days or weeks rather than months or years as is now commonly the case. Then, once a determination has been made, it should be acted upon. The people who are found to be genuine refugees we should help to settle in our country. However, people who are found to be bogus refugees should be deported immediately. That is what we have called for.

We have also called for the people smugglers to be dealt with firmly. They are the people who are initiating this activity, who are most often members of organized crime, and the people who actually operate people smuggling rings.

Yesterday in the House the minister said that Canada has some of the toughest laws on this issue. I do not know what she was comparing us with, because in fact we have extremely weak laws in terms of dealing with people smugglers when compared with the United States, Australia or other countries. Not only that, the maximum 10 year sentence has never been implemented. The maximum sentence that has ever been imposed on someone involved in people smuggling in this country is somewhere around three years. That is completely unacceptable and it clearly demonstrates a lack of leadership by this government.

I would like to speak next about this system not working for the people for whom it is intended to work. There are three streams of immigration. The first stream is the independent category, which is made up of people who come because they have special education or special skills, or because they are going to invest in a business or operate a business.

The second stream is the refugee stream. Most experts would suggest that through our refugee stream probably 60% are bogus refugees. They are not legitimate refugees as laid out in the UN convention on refugees.

The third stream is family reunification of both of these previous groups.

I would ask if any member of the House could honestly say that they do not have a huge problem in their constituency when it comes to processing people whom we desperately need in this country, those people who bring a special skill or education, or reuniting them with their families from their countries of origin, or reuniting a Canadian with someone they have recently married. I know that not one member of the House would say honestly that the system is not so badly broken that it is not working for these very people for whom it is intended to work.

Not only is the system not working for those it is intended to work for, it has been a disaster in terms of screening people for whom it is not intended to work. It should be clear to Canadians that we need leadership on this issue. We are not getting it from the government. I implore the government to deal with this issue. If it will not, and I assume it will not—it has shown no will to do that—then we will when we form the government in two years.

[Request For Emergency Debate, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 52 I request leave to make a motion for adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration.

Over the summer months it became evident that a crisis exists in our immigration and refugee determination system. Canada has become a primary target for illegal migration. This is causing a problem with queue jumping. People who are using the normal process are extremely concerned that their process is being held up as a result of poor handling of the refugee determination process by the government.

There are three recent events I would like to quickly refer to which demonstrate the need for an emergency debate.

First is the detaining of illegal migrants for months already and it will probably stretch into years in new camps or prisons that have been set up specifically for this reason. I do not think it is acceptable in a country like Canada to have a system that is working so poorly that people are being detained for months and years while they await the outcome of the determination process.

Second, Mayor Lastman, the mayor of Toronto, Canada's largest city, has publicly expressed concern about our immigration system, in particular our refugee determination system which is working so poorly that it is putting an extra cost burden on his city. He wants the government rather than the city to bear that burden if the government is not going to fix the system.

Third, yesterday, according to media reports the premier of Ontario has written a letter to the government and to the immigration minister saying he is fed up with the system working so poorly. He wants the government to fix the system because his province cannot bear the costs.

It is important that we debate this issue immediately to send a signal to people smugglers and those who would use their services that Canada will no longer be an easy mark. We must put in place legislation that will make this process happen within days and weeks rather than months and years as is currently the situation and which will quickly end the virtual slave trade that is building in our country. People smugglers are bringing people in illegally and putting them into slave-like conditions. That is something Canadians cannot accept.

For those reasons, it is important that we have an emergency debate today to change the law to fix these problems.

[Immigration, October 13th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the taxpayers of Canada's largest cities and the provinces bear the brunt of the government's bungling on immigration. Yesterday Toronto's mayor, Mel Lastman, said he is tired of the government's excuses and his city can no longer afford the Liberal's broken immigration system. The mayor of Toronto is simply expressing the frustration on immigration felt across this country.

How does the minister respond to Toronto's mayor and Canadians who share his concerns?

[Immigration, October 13th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, people smuggling is rampant in Canada. Boatloads of human cargo land on our shores. Our airports are increasingly becoming sieves for illegal migrants and the government does not even care enough to prosecute the captains involved in people smuggling.

Canadians, especially new immigrants, have called on the government to make this issue a priority, yet there is no mention of it whatsoever in the throne speech.

Why is the smuggling of human cargo, the enslavement of thousands of people and the infiltration of organized crime not important to the government?