Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't pretend to have expertise in biometrics, but with every new tool that our government explores, I often give a caution to pay attention that particular groups not be profiled unnecessarily, that we have systems in place. This is something someone asked me the other day. Fo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When we look at the examples from our allies around the world who have alternative to detention programs, they do a test based on vulnerability and therefore risk. For example, women who are travelling with their children are often not detained when there is a reasonable belief

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're not arguing that with you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's why we're recommending that we begin a plan of setting up a formal alternative program. What we will do, then, is identify the conditions that people must meet, under which—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, with all due respect, yes—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't presume to know who is innocent or guilty of whatever, but that is why we believe it's important to build a formal program that is an alternative to detention and that will set out the conditions by which we measure those who are at minimum risk, th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me finish then by talking about security in terms of the impact minimum sentencing will have on those who have grown up in Canada who might find themselves in situations, often because of petty crime, where because of the sentence that has been handed down, they may be seen a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Dykstra, when we received the invitation we looked very carefully at the scope of the study, and we made sure that detention and deportation would fit within the scope of the study. That is why we have chosen to speak to these two issues this afternoon.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I have.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I promise not to use up my whole 10 minutes, after my last time here and your great patience with my going over time. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I want to thank you again for this opportunity. I apologize for not having copies of my remarks for you. Time ran away on

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I was saying, we believe that Bill C-11, as a negotiated compromise, is actually a good bill. I think that Mr. Skarica is conflating issues of trafficking with issues of refugee determination. We absolutely believe that Canada needs to have stronger responses to issues of traf

Citizenship and Immigration committee  With all due respect, I think what we said was that we have Bill C-11, that Bill C-11 was a negotiated bill and that it addresses many of the concerns you have raised. To what—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, but to what Mr. Skarica—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —was speaking—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As you heard from one of our earlier witnesses, the current law allows for detention so that we can determine folks' identity. We believe that mandatory detention of up to 12 months is excessive, given that it's applied to particular groups of folk deemed to be irregular arrivals