Foreign Affairs committee  Look, the concern was—and I felt prosecutorial discretion was sufficient to address this—that there may be some ambiguity around somebody getting expenses covered in the context of receiving an organ donation. Someone is travelling to another place and receiving an organ that is being donated to them, but that person receives.... Let's say they have hotel and travel expenses paid for them as part of that process of organ donation.

Foreign Affairs committee  This is more of a technical question. Maybe Mr. Wrzesnewskyj or Ms. Levman, or both, can comment on this. When somebody receives an organ in the context of trafficking, they are not so much intending to exploit; they are simply indifferent to the exploitation. Their intent is to get an organ for themselves. They're not aiming at exploitation as a core objective.

Foreign Affairs committee  One possible worry I would have for that is does “for the purpose of exploitation” refer to the intention of the recipient? Because somebody might be receiving an organ without any sort of specific intent to exploit. In that they may be grossly negligent and their intention is to get an organ for themselves. They are exploiting in fact but they're not seeking exploitation.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, that's something that prosecutors deal with every day. Certainly for somebody who innocently went abroad and received an organ for which there was consent, doing so in another jurisdiction that has the rule of law or receiving from a family member, the risk that the person would get caught up in a prosecution here is totally nil.

Foreign Affairs committee  When we have a case where a Canadian goes abroad to receive an organ for which there isn't consent, we recognize that as feeding and supporting a great evil, which is organs being taken from people forcibly, without consent. We need legislative mechanisms such as we're discussing today to stop that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Wrzesnewskyj who is here, and who got this ball rolling 10 years ago, as well as Irwin Cotler, for all of his work and support throughout this process. This bill proposes to make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ without proper consent. It creates a mechanism by which someone can be deemed inadmissible to Canada if they have been involved in organ harvesting. This touches on a number of different situations.

Organ and Tissue Donation  Anecdotally, Canadians have a sense that some people in other countries will travel to receive an organ that was taken without consent. That should be a criminal offence because being complicit in this terrible practice of organ harvesting is wrong and Canada should do everything it can to try to stop that practice.

Petitions  This is a bill that I am sponsoring in this place that has come to us recently from the Senate. It seeks to make it a criminal offence for someone to go abroad to receive an organ for which there has not been consent. It also deals with inadmissibility to Canada for those who have been involved in the traffic of illicit organs. The petitioners note that for trafficking in human organs without consent, there is currently no legal prohibition against that in Canada.

Petitions  Petitioners calls on Parliament to quickly pass Bill S-240 to make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ that was violently harvested from someone without their consent.

Petitions  The petitioners call on the House and the Senate to work for the speedy passage of Bill C-350 and Bill S-240. These bills would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad and receive an organ for which there was not consent. The petition also deals with the admissibility to Canada of those who have been involved in the trafficking of organs.

Petitions  I understand that Bill S-240 will likely be debated and voted on in the Senate today, and it may be with us very soon. These bills both aim to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ for which there was not consent. We know that this terrible practice exists whereby organs are extracted from political prisoners or prisoners of conscience without their consent, and they may end up being used by people from Canada.

Petitions  The petitioners call on the government and all parliamentarians to support the speedy passage of these bills. They would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad and receive an organ for which there was not consent. This is an effective legislative tool to combat the scourge of forced organ harvesting.

Petitions  These are important bills that would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ harvested without consent. Petitioners are asking the government to pass at least one of these bills expeditiously, so we can move forward and be part of the solution to this global problem.

National Security Act, 2017  For example, let me take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my own private member's bill, Bill C-350. It would, for the first time, make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to receive an organ that has been harvested from a person without his or her consent. A similar bill, Bill S-240, is working its way through the Senate and will likely come to this chamber before my private member's bill.