Immigration  With Bill C-44 we have taken precisely the common sense approach to try to fix up the removals and tighten up the refugee system. My question is: Why is that party playing politics and not supporting the legislation?

Immigration  His perspective on this issue is not an academic or an interest group perspective, it is a street level perspective to which the minister should pay more attention. The minister's department used to handle all dimensions of immigration including the refugee dimension. Since the quasi-judicial IRB was set up and populated by members of the immigration industry the minister denies responsibility for the defects of the-

Immigration  What I have said time in and time out is that this minister and this government will not get involved in the day to day adjudication of cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board regardless of how many times its critics get up and give us the blood and the guts and the gore of individual cases. We are responsible for the general policy framework under which the IRB operates.

Immigration Act  Speaker, the hon. member and I come from different backgrounds. You are a former police officer, while I am a former refugee. We do not share the same experiences, the same situations. You want to have more stringent measures, while I find that the bill will not solve the real problems. There are already three working groups made up of the RCMP, the immigration officers and the local police in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Immigration Act  I found myself disappointed in that his speech addressed many examples of the failures of immigration and refugee policy in the past. It never at any time-I think Hansard will show this-offered a constructive criticism of any aspect of Bill C-44. I do appreciate that there have been abuses in the past.

Immigration Act  They come into our country and then are not actually processed by a security system until they then present themselves for a refugee hearing or some other kind of a hearing. I go back to the comment I made earlier. We let the foxes into the hen house and then expect them to show up for a process that will then check their validity.

Immigration Act  But Canadians will not tolerate and I will not tolerate those who abuse our generosity and violate our laws". That is what this bill is attempting to do, to remove any immigrant or refugee who violates our laws. We have heard from the Reform Party how we must reduce our annual deficit and public debt. I agree with the Reform Party on that. To do what the Reform Party wants in immigration will require additional resources, additional personnel resources, additional financial resources.

Immigration Act  I think that cases like the one he just described for us occur frequently. You know, the question of refugees is in federal jurisdiction. We in Quebec have always been open to foreigners. Now, of course, cases can arise, as I just said. Now, even though there are isolated cases, the law must still be applied.

Immigration Act  He was sentenced to prison where he spent three years. In 1993, he got out and was allowed to remain in Canada by the Immigration and Refugee Board. They accepted him. They allowed him to stay in Canada for another six years, seven years in fact, until the year 2000, on the grounds that he could be rehabilitated. However, I found their decision totally unacceptable because the mother of the woman who was strangled met him on the street after he moved back to the same neighbourhood.

Peacekeeping  While the massacres in Rwanda have had an impact on the neighbouring countries, especially in terms of creating large flows of refugees, I do not believe the crisis there represents a threat to regional or world stability. In terms of my third criteria, geographic ties, Canada is neither close to Rwanda nor do we have a tradition of dealing with that country or its people.

Unemployment Insurance Act  We continue to be very active at the UN third committee and the UN commission on human rights. We are among the larger donors of multilateral humanitarian assistance to Burmese refugees and we continue to press for the immediate release of Nobel peace prize winner Madam Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Immigration Act  This bill could be declared unconstitutional in several respects because, in my opinion, some of its provisions violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Geneva Convention on Refugees. How can the hon. member justify these drastic provisions?

Immigration Act  I ask that question because during his remarks today he seemed to be talking about the fact that we were going to continue the flaw in the existing act that talks about criminals having access to our refugee determination system. The minister stood in this House earlier today and highlighted that provision in the act that is being amended. I want to quote for the member. That is very important because the member is leaving a perception in the minds of Canadians that we are not dealing with this.

Immigration Act  Would the hon. member not agree there are some people in Canada, again a small minority I am sure, who might want to equate immigrant to criminal or refugee to criminal. The member spoke of confidence. I wonder if she would agree that by having more precise laws, by having a better law than the one we are currently debating, by having a law that has more teeth which would do away with the abject abuses that our member from Fraser Valley West was talking about, would accomplish exactly what she and I want to achieve, that is, to be able to say truly that people coming to Canada are coming to build Canada, make it stronger and a better place for all of us to live.

Immigration Act  It is necessary to bring to the attention of this group here the problems involved in the refugee process. Yes, the bill goes some way toward that but there are still problems. I laid them out. I know the hon. member does not understand but that is what gets Liberals elected nowadays.