Citizenship and Immigration committee  The most critical thing right now is for them to come to Canada. It would be good to have a special program—a fast track—for them to become permanent residents or citizens, but the critical thing right now is to let them leave Hong Kong and come to Canada to settle, because of th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, definitely, because I heard that some information was leaked already. I cannot fact-check that, but I was told that some information was leaked because of.... Somebody went through that process. I'm really afraid this was not a single instance—it's probably quite common ther

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Actually, I tried to answer Mr. Genuis' question. The first thing we have to do is educate or maybe instruct our staff in the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong. I know of a Canadian who has been vocal in Hong Kong. He rides a motorbike in Hong Kong. He was almost run down by

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I totally agree. As I said, like chicken and egg, we never get the refugee status for those people, so we cannot use any of our existing programs to support them. I totally agree with your suggestion that we should have a blanket policy like the one we had in 1989.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I just want to add to that. A number of study visas have been rejected by the Hong Kong consulate office, because if they think the person will stay in Canada after their studies, they would not qualify. That defeats the purpose of our current lifeboat. We want people to come t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Can I go?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. Actually, I'll go back to the first question. I think that right now we have a good refugee sponsorship program, but it's like the chicken and the egg: We will never get the refugees because there's nobody to certify the refugees in Hong Kong or a nearby country. There's no

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair and distinguished members of the committee, I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Eric Li. I'm the vice-president of Canada-Hong Kong Link. Our group works to protect and promote the furtherance of human rights, the rule of law and democ

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.