44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 22, 2022 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, we on this side of the House will be supporting the bill.
There have been concerns raised, and in my speech today I raised issues with the CBSA detaining children due to their immigration status. The fact that this is still a practice in this country is wrong. I think it is vile that in this country we detain children due to their immigration status.
Does my hon. colleague agree with me that it is wrong and that we need to put legislation in place to ban this racist, discriminatory practice that violates the rights of little children in Canada?
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Mr. Speaker, I most certainly agree with my colleague that if anybody is detaining individuals based on their immigration status, citizenship status or race for that matter, it is completely unacceptable and wrong. It is something that we should not do.
I do not know if we need to actually put it in the legislation, because it would appear to me as though that would be unconstitutional on its own anyway. I am not against the idea of putting that in legislation, if that is what the committee determines when the committee does its work. I find it very alarming and very concerning, the suggestion that is coming from the member. I take her word that she is aware of this happening.
That is exactly why we need the measures that are put in this, so that those complaints can be heard and can be dealt with in a manner that has the proper oversight of the very important agencies that have this discretionary power in looking out for our safety.
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Madam Speaker, resources come in various shapes and forms. There are human resources and financial resources. Indeed, the latter will be available. We will ensure that all the money necessary will be available to build up a new organization of accountability. That is a commitment that I know this government has already made.
On the issue of human resources and making sure there is enough personnel, for example, to fill all the important positions within the CBSA, the RCMP and this new accountability measure, we are going to rely largely on immigration in this country to fill a lot of those positions. Canadians these days are simply not having as many children as the economy requires if we would like it to grow, and this is one of those important areas where we need to rely on immigration for our workforce and the human resource capital that Canada so desperately needs.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. It was clear and precise. My colleague alluded to the fact that we have been wanting to do this for seven years. I would like to remind him that this was deferred in 2019 or in 2020, it does not matter. In 2004, in other words, 18 years ago, Justice O'Connor recommended creating this type of process.
That being said, I will just pick up on the question from the NDP member. I have absolutely no clue what kind of an investment this represents. Are we talking about millions of dollars? My colleague proposes relying on immigration to fill the positions; that would be about 10 to 50 positions. What would enacting the bill mean, both financially and in terms of human resources?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to build on the question my colleague asked earlier.
When I worked as the assistant to the member for Brome—Missisquoi, the president of the Customs and Immigration Union, Jean-Pierre Fortin, visited our office. In the early 2000s, we saw the negative effects of the Conservative government's cuts to border crossings. Those cuts created a lot of extremely frustrating situations for the workers.
My colleague brought up the issue of illegal weapons at the border and how it is important to better control them. I would like to hear what he has to say about that.
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