44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 23, 2022 02:00PM
- Nov/23/22 7:21:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I assure the hon. member that he is heard. I reiterate that good policing requires good governance, and I look forward to working with him and all members of the House on the continued independence of the RCMP.
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- Nov/23/22 7:21:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak about the urgency of protecting children from predators and sexual abuse. This is an issue I have raised many times in this place, and I have often confronted the government for what seems to be a lack of concern and lack of action.
In June, I asked the government to inform the House of the number of passports it had given to child sex offenders over the past seven years, and the minister did not answer that question. The Harper Conservatives left the Liberal government with an important tool to protect kids abroad from sexual exploitation. Far too often, Canadians travel abroad to countries to pay to sexually exploit and rape children. Common destinations around the world are countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, and countries south of Canada such as Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
Just before the 2015 election, the former Conservative government changed the passport order to allow the minister of citizenship and immigration to revoke the passports of Canadians who are likely to go abroad to exploit children. However, the Liberals have not been making use of this particular tool to help protect children. Between 2015, when they came to power, and mid-2021, the Liberal government only revoked 13 passports from child predators and only refused eight passports.
Canada has 60,000 registered sex offenders, and 72% of them are child predators. That is over 42,000 child predators in Canada. Between 2,500 and 3,500 new names are added to this registry every year. However, after six years in power, the Liberal government has only refused eight passports to child predators. It is horrifying, it is unconscionable and it is immoral. It is almost as if the government has been doing as little as possible to protect children. It has a track record of being soft on criminals and putting the rights of predators first, and this is another example of that.
The United States is also a key destination for Canadian child predators, and since 2016, the U.S. government has been pleading with Canada to share information when a convicted Canadian child sex offender is travelling abroad or travelling to the U.S. The Liberals' response is no and that we must respect the privacy rights of these child predators. It was only last month, after The Globe and Mail continued to shed light on this, first in February and again a few weeks ago, that under public exposure, the Liberals finally agreed to this request from the United States.
Consider that in the first half of 2022, the United States provided Canada with details of over 165 Americans convicted of child sexual abuse who were coming into Canada, and we were able to deny 112 of them access to Canada. During that same time, Canada only gave the United States a heads-up once. I guarantee it was only because of the first Globe and Mail article. I do not know that for sure, but it is my suspicion.
Through organizations that work to rescue and restore children who have been exploited, we know that Canadian child sex offenders who have been convicted of horrific crimes against children are travelling back overseas. The Liberal government knows they are travelling. How? It gave them passports. The Liberals also know that these predators have to notify the government every time they travel, yet the Liberals do everything they can to protect the privacy of these predators.
I expect the hon. parliamentary secretary to tell us how they plan to introduce a bill to make sharing the information of child predators easier and put more restrictions on these predators. The reality is that nobody trusts the government when it is not even using the tools it has.
Once again, can the minister tell us—
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- Nov/23/22 7:25:32 p.m.
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The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
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- Nov/23/22 7:29:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his questions, but before starting to answer the questions, let me give a bit of background information to make sure everyone understands the process.
The passport entitlement and investigations division, known as PEID, renders entitlement decisions. Those decisions include approvals, cancellations, refusals and revocations. It can also impose periods of refusal of services when a situation merits many administrative sanctions. The division conducts administrative investigations into cases of possible entitlement fraud, identity fraud and passport misuse. It does so in accordance with the Canadian passport order and the principles of natural justice, determining eligibility for and entitlement to passport services for individuals who may be subject to judicial or criminal issues in Canada or abroad.
In 2015, the Canadian passport order was amended, as mentioned, to include section 9(2). This section allows IRCC to cancel passports when there are reasonable grounds to suspect and refuse to reissue or revoke passports where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such action is necessary to prevent the commission of a sexual offence against a child in Canada or abroad.
About today's questions, I can assure my colleagues that Canada's passport programs work closely with the criminal justice community to obtain information on individuals who may be subjected to passport restrictions.
I can also assure my colleagues that whenever information is shared by partnering agencies, IRCC will conduct an administrative investigation to determine if action is merited pursuant to the order.
Let me explain how it works. In order for information to be actionable, it needs to be indicative of the potential for the activity occurring in the future. If information is not sufficient at the time of review to refuse issuance or revoke a passport, the individual will remain on the passport program system lookout watch-list. This is for monitoring purposes for a future review of their entitlement for passport services. Here it is important to note that other sections of the order allow for action when charges or judicial restrictions exist in these situations.
All we know is there are far more law-abiding Canadians who are deserving of a passport, and we want to serve them well while protecting children from sex offenders. Having worked as a social worker and an advocate for children's rights, I too am concerned about the safety and security of our kids and grandkids. However, their safety remains paramount. The government will never compromise that.
Every passport application is scrutinized and assessed on its own merits while balancing service standards with safety. That is why security and integrity have always remained top of list over the past year as we put measures in place to respond to the increasing demands for passports.
The service offered at Service Canada centres continues to improve, but always in compliance with security and integrity. For example, one of those improvements is increasing the number of sites offering 10 business day passport pickup service to 13, including in my home community of Orleans. It also allows applicants to keep their personal documents and not have to mail them in.
Across the country we are continuing to improve services, and we are continuing—
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- Nov/23/22 7:29:39 p.m.
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The hon. member for Peace River—Westlock.
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- Nov/23/22 7:29:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I still do not have an answer to my question. The question was this: How many passports has the Liberal government given to convicted child sex offenders?
I noted off the top that there are 72,000 Canadians on the sex offender list, of whom 42,000 are child sex offenders. We know through Order Paper questions that the government has refused a passport to only about a handful, fewer than 20, of the cases. The question is, how many has it granted? That is the question I am trying to get at.
I know about the review body. I know about all these things. My question is this: Why are child sex offenders getting passports? I hear from civil society groups that monitor these things that they know what particular individuals are doing and where they are going. They are asking why those individuals are getting a passport.
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- Nov/23/22 7:30:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is an attitude of all hands on deck to make sure that individuals who do not deserve a passport do not get one.
Canada's passport program is working hand in hand with partners such as Correctional Services Canada, the RCMP, police services and partnering agencies to make sure that sex offenders do not get a passport. We are doing so while making sure that all other Canadians who do deserve a passport will get one in due time.
We may have implemented many well-thought-out, reality-based solutions to speed up the process to get a passport this year, but one thing we did not do is compromise the integrity of the passport rights. At all costs, we must protect our children, and that is exactly what we are going to continue to do.
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- Nov/23/22 7:31:32 p.m.
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The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 7:31 p.m.)
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