House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2015, with 16% of the vote.
Citizenship and Immigration April 4th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, people around the world have noticed the measures that the Conservatives have taken to close our doors to refugees.
This week, the UN published a report confirming that in 2013, Canada accepted half as many refugee claims as in 2012. It also described highly divergent trends. Many Canadians feel that Canada is moving away from its role as a country that welcomes victims of persecution.
When will the minister move to counter the adverse effects of this bungled immigration reform?
Offshore Health and Safety Act March 27th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I do not understand why the minister would refuse to answer a very simple question. I will try to ask it in the simplest way possible.
Why was recommendation 29 from the Wells report not included in Bill C-5? It is a simple question. Can she answer it?
Petitions March 27th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I present a petition with respect to Bill C-24 and the fact that it does unfairly treat current Canadian permanent residents who came to Canada as temporary foreign workers or international students.
The petitioners call upon the House of Commons to consider amending the Canadian Citizenship Act to recognize non-permanent residency time to be counted toward the citizenship residency requirement.
Committees of the House March 24th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to the report from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, and as the official opposition, the NDP will be presenting a supplementary report. In our opinion, the report is not indicative of the diversity of opinions and does not present a balanced perspective.
For example, the report does not include the interesting suggestions that were made by several witnesses about transparency, to inform people of the real and detailed reasons why their visa was denied. Another suggestion was to make it easier for people to obtain temporary resident visas to help the tourism industry.
Those suggestions, and many others, are part of our supplementary report.
Citizenship and Immigration March 24th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, nine months have passed since the government promised to resettle 1,300 refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict, but Canada has actually welcomed very few of those refugees.
In 2013, Canada brought in just 10 government-sponsored refugees, and nothing was done to accelerate the process. Could that be because of the lack of resources related to budget cuts?
When will the government keep its promise and act on the request from the High Commissioner for Refugees to bring more Syrian refugees into Canada?
Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act March 6th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, there are still some things that I simply cannot understand. When an agreement like this is said to be good, even though no one really wants to talk about the human rights situation in the country with which we are about to sign an agreement, that makes absolutely no sense to me.
An agreement with these potential economic gains cannot simply ignore the country's social problems. My colleague mentioned this earlier. We are trying to incorporate this into the debate, because to the NDP, it is an integral part of it.
Is my colleague aware of the human rights problems? Is he at least willing to recognize here in the House that they exist? If so, can he tell me what this agreement does to show Canada's leadership role in helping the people of Honduras and to demonstrate that Canada takes the issue of human rights very seriously?
Citizenship and Immigration March 5th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, the findings of a recent Wellesley Institute study on cuts to refugee health care are disturbing. In addition to being inhumane, these cuts could jeopardize public health and would probably be more costly than the savings the Conservatives hope to realize by implementing them.
Once again, the Conservatives are making poor choices in addition to playing with the health of Canadians. What does the minister intend to do to address the harmful effects of his botched reform?
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act February 27th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech.
One thing worries me about today's debate, and this comes mainly from the minister. It appears that he is already jumping to conclusions by saying that we are opposed to making the citizenship system more effective or that we are against punishing people who cheat the system. He says this because in the bill, which is about 50 pages long, there are of course some measures that we agree with and some commendable intentions, but there are also other measures that are quite questionable and troubling, not only to the official opposition but also to many civil society groups and experts in the field.
When I asked the minister earlier if he would be willing to review some aspects of the bill, he said he did not see any shortcomings in the bill.
I would like to ask my colleague, who is a fellow member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, if this means that there is no room for hearing from experts and taking their recommendations into account. If the minister sees absolutely no shortcomings in his bill, when many groups have already expressed their concerns, does that mean that there will be no room for amendments in committee? We often see this, and I hope that that will not be the case when this bill is examined by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act February 27th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question, which covered many aspects of the bill.
Unfortunately, I will not have enough time to address all of them. I know that my colleague is very familiar with the legal systems in Quebec and Canada. Experts have talked about cases where a child born in Canada to one Canadian parent can have another citizenship, because some countries will grant citizenship to a child when one parents is a citizen. If that child, who was born and raised here, is accused of one of the crimes listed in the bill, he or she might not have the option of receiving a sentence here in Canada, one that is delivered by our criminal justice system and considered fair in relation to the crime. That is troubling. We have a legal system in place.
I am not saying that fraudsters and criminals should not be punished. On the contrary, I agree with the principle whereby people who commit fraud or other crimes should be punished. They must be sentenced, but the question is, how and by whom? Should it be by this minister or by Canada's fair and equitable legal system?
Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act February 27th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. She is very active and always does so much for her constituents in LaSalle—Émard. Her work is always appreciated.
Some people who come to our offices have been waiting for a response to their citizenship application for three or four years. Is that any way to treat people? No. They have to fill out residency questionnaires, questionnaires that can be 50 to 200 pages long. They have to find documents anywhere from two to ten years old to convince people that their intentions are good. The government has to do what it has to do to ensure that our citizenship system is good, that it works for people and enables honest people to get their citizenship, but this bill goes way beyond that. It penalizes people and raises significant legal and human rights concerns.