Immigration Act  Do you think it is worth passing a very controversial bill to solve five or ten cases that could have been solved administratively, without the need for a very controversial bill which is criticized by immigration lawyers, by the Canadian Council for Refugees and by the churches? You mentioned mail from abroad. Customs officers will be able to examine such mail. Immigration officers will be able to seize such mail. Who will say, "We will open this letter and not that one"?

Immigration Act  There are so many other things that the member should want to deal with but chooses to make the connection between refugees and criminality or immigrants and criminality. To continue to put the two together all the time seems to me to be doing a disservice to Canadians who are contributing members of this society.

Immigration Act  A major reason we have been able to respond with such generosity to migration needs and international crises is because we have carefully maintained public support for our broad objectives. Canadians have demanded with reason that their immigration and refugee systems be not only fair and effective but also well managed. Once assured, Canadians have generously supported Canada's commitment to meet our international obligations even in the present unsettled economic times.

Immigration  Speaker, last week a confidential document was released by the minister of immigration's department outlining plans to cut the number of immigrants coming into Canada, to restrict family class immigration, to require security bonds from sponsors of relatives and eliminate automatic citizenship for the children of refugees. We would like to acknowledge that the minister has recognized the merits of our party's initiatives and we would like to ask him when these very good ideas will be put into place.

Immigration Act  Madam Speaker, I move: That all the words after the word "That" be deleted and the following substituted therefor: -this House declines to give second reading to Bill C-44, an act to amend the Immigration Act and the Citizenship Act, and to make a consequential amendment to the Customs Act because of its failure to bar, prior to a refugee hearing and an application for permanent residence, those who have been convicted of a crime that would carry a sentence in Canada of 10 years or more and those individuals who fall under the category of persons listed in section 19(1) and (2) of the Immigration Act.

Petitions  Finally, the petitioners urge that Parliament make representation to the United Nations High Commissioner to ensure that all Vietnamese refugees are treated with fairness and dignity.

Immigration  This young lady agreed to drop the sexual assault charges on the condition that this repeat offender was deported which he was in November last year. Now I find this chronic sex offender, this failed refugee claimant is back in my community to appear, by invitation from this minister's officials, at a second hearing to be allowed to stay in Canada. Why is this man even getting a hearing in the first place?

Brent Epp  Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to and express profound respect for a young Albertan who has left Canada for the fourth time in his young life to serve needy people in other parts of the world. While he was a student he spent a summer working as an unpaid volunteer in the refugee camps in Thailand. Upon graduation from university he worked for a year in southern Sudan, Kenya and Somalia at considerable personal danger to bring food and medical supplies to starving and suffering children and adults.

The Family  Can the minister of immigration tell the House how a broader definition of family would affect immigration issues such as family reunification or refugee determination?

Bankruptcy Act  In the context of Rwanda my suggestion is directed to the fact that once the internal ethnic strife had transcended national frontiers with the waves of refugees from Rwanda escaping to neighbouring states and thereby imposing severe burdens on those neighbouring states' economy and health and social welfare resources and personnel, the Rwanda conflicts had ceased to be purely internal or national, if they ever were, and had taken on a larger international dimension, with major implications in the new humanitarian international law.

Bankruptcy Act  Since the outbreak of violence in April CIDA has contributed $4 million and pledged another $7.6 million in emergency aid to Canadian NGOs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Red Cross. A Canadian military aircraft based in Nairobi is the only link between Kigali and the outside world. As a result of a new attack on the airport on June 5, humanitarian flights have been suspended until a new truce is negotiated.

Refugees  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. It is very crucial to keep in mind that no immigration officials administer or are permitted to administer medical assistance or prescribe any medicine for those who are being removed or deported. The only individuals who are permitted to do that, to recommend it, and to implement it are medical practitioners.

Refugees  Mr. Speaker, our information differs. Considering how serious this issue is and since the minister has admitted that 12 people received such treatment, will the minister commit to holding an independent inquiry, as required under international agreements, to shed light on possibly illegal behaviour on the part of immigration officers?

Refugees  Mr. Speaker, no, I am not going to have an inquiry for something that this member throws very loosely across the floor. If he has information that anyone has perpetrated illegal acts then he has the duty and the obligation as a member of Parliament to provide me with that information.

Immigration  Speaker, upon becoming Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, one of the first things I asked NGO representatives to do on a non-remunerative basis, on a very quick basis, was try to put together a report of recommendations on how we can better deal with the automatic review and the humanitarian and compassionate review under the immigration refugee board. There was concern because it lacked clarification and it lacked definition. I have accepted the premise of the report. Upon accepting the premise of the report I believe it is logical in the interim to allow those individuals since 1993 when the automatic review started to have a review of their cases to ensure that through that lack of clarity those individuals did receive a fair determination.