Ralph Goodale

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 3rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the very serious issue of human trafficking, I am pleased to report to the hon. gentleman that this was a major topic under discussion among G7 ministers of security about a week or 10 days ago.

There was complete consensus among the seven countries, plus the European Union, plus Interpol, that this was an agenda topic for the leaders of the G7 to reinforce. We intend to keep this very prominently on the agenda. To make sure that is the case, the Prime Minister has appointed a gender equality advisory council to reinforce the message.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 1st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman needs to understand the rules. In fact, when people cross the border inconsistently with the rules, they are arrested and questioned. They are identified, both biographically and biometrically, and their identity is checked against every Canadian and U.S. database for any immigration, criminal, or security flags. Then they are required, in fact, to prove the necessity for protection in Canada. If they cannot prove that, their admissibility is denied, and they are removed from the country.

[Health, April 30th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, in budget 2018, we included $80 million over five years for the federal tobacco control strategy. We are now renewing agreements with the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service and the Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers to address organized crime activities, including contraband tobacco.

This new funding will help reverse the previous government's cuts, so that Canada can remain a leader in tobacco control.

[Public Safety, April 30th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the record shows that we never ignore the problem. As a matter of fact, the government operations centre, which is a part of my department, is in constant contact with all provincial officials across the country, including those in the province of Quebec, to determine if federal assistance is needed to alleviate emergency situations like flooding.

If a request comes in, we will respond instantly.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, those who approach our borders need to understand that irregular crossings are not a free ticket to Canada. If they cross in that manner, they will be arrested and questioned, they will be identified both biographically and biometrically, they will be checked against Canadian and U.S. databases for any immigration, criminal, or security flags that exist, they will be required to prove that they have a legitimate asylum claim, and if they cannot prove that, they will be removed from Canada to their country of origin.

That is what Canadian law requires, and that is what we will deliver.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the government has two prime objectives. One is ensuring that all Canadian laws are fully enforced. The second is to ensure that all Canadian international obligations are fully honoured. We have succeeded on both of those fronts to date, thanks to the excellent work of the RCMP, the CBSA, and the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Budget 2018 provided an extra $173 million to ensure that we can continue to succeed in this endeavour.

I want to congratulate all the officers who do such extraordinary work in protecting our borders.

[Status of Women, April 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, this is a profoundly serious issue.

I would note that in the last two budgets, there have been specific increases in resources from the Government of Canada to tackle problems of exactly this kind. I also had the opportunity at the beginning of this week to discuss this issue with G7 security ministers, with a view to making sure that those who provide communication services are aware of their responsibilities to work with government and to work with civil society to bring that foul and vile material off the Internet.

[Public Safety, April 18th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we promised to create a non-taxable compensation benefit of $300,000 for the families of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who died in the line of duty. As of this month, the memorial grant program is now in effect.

First responders put themselves at risk every day to keep our communities safe. From now on they can go to work secure in the knowledge that if tragedy strikes, this federal program will be there to help support their families.

[Public Safety, April 18th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman is a distinguished lawyer and knows very well that I cannot comment on the items that are included in his question.

However, I can tell him that the issue of transparency and accountability is taken very seriously by our government. We have implemented measures in Bill C-59, in Bill C-22, and we have published the first-ever ministerial directives with respect to the issue of torture in dealing with international entities.

I am pleased to say that he is one of the members of Parliament that in fact serves on the national security and intelligence—

[Public Safety, April 18th, 2018]

The hon. gentleman will know that I am prohibited from commenting on outstanding court proceedings, but I would point out in response to his questions about transparency and accountability with respect to our security agencies that we have issued new ministerial directives and we have published those ministerial directives for the first time ever.

We are also in the process of working on Bill C-59, which implements a whole series of transparency and accountability measures, and we have created the first-ever National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.