44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 24, 2023 11:00AM
- Apr/24/23 3:08:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me be clear about what actually happened here.
The DFO more than doubled the number of enforcement officers. We worked closely with the RCMP. We made numerous arrests, seized gear and unauthorized catches and closed down the fishery to protect public safety and conservation. This enforcement continues for the closed elver fishery.
We are working to reduce the amount of illegal fishery, and we will continue to do just that.
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- Apr/24/23 3:09:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago today, on April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,134 people and injuring even more. That incident brought to light the inhuman conditions in which many workers around the world still work today. It reminds us that we have a responsibility as world leaders to fight for the rights of workers everywhere, regardless of borders and distance.
Can the Minister of Labour update us on the work that our government is doing to protect workers around the world on this sombre anniversary?
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- Apr/24/23 3:10:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Rana Plaza incident of 10 years ago is a painful reminder of the absolute necessity for workers around the world to have fair pay and safe working conditions.
Canada is working with the International Labour Organization and unions to champion the rights of workers. We have built labour conditions into our trade agreements. Workers make trade possible, and they should reap the benefits of it.
I went to Washington last year to launch M-POWER, a global initiative with the U.S. and other like-minded countries, to support unions and workers' rights and to eradicate forced labour in our supply chains.
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- Apr/24/23 3:10:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have given more than $200 million to Deloitte for contracts within a single department in the last year alone. Now, we have learned that former Liberal and Conservative cabinet ministers are currently working for Deloitte.
Public service workers have been left out in the rain asking for fair pay. Meanwhile, the Liberals have no problem giving massive multi-million dollar contracts to their friends. People are fed up with the hypocrisy. Will the minister end this reckless government outsourcing and instead get a fair deal for public service workers?
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- Apr/24/23 3:11:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as was clearly established at the government operations committee earlier this year, there was absolutely no political interference in the contracts awarded, particularly to McKinsey. We are open and transparent as a government in the way that we award contracts, and we will continue to be.
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- Apr/24/23 3:11:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the situation in Sudan is rapidly deteriorating. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. Over 1,600 Canadians have registered with Global Affairs Canada; sadly, many more have not.
The fighting is intense. Food and water supplies are limited. Canada has evacuated its embassy and suspended consular services. We know that Canada is trying to work out an evacuation plan with like-minded countries.
Advising people to shelter in place with no embassy, food or water is not a viable solution. Can the minister inform the House of how the plan is coming along?
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- Apr/24/23 3:12:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member raises an important question. It took a long time today to get out of the weeds and into a very life-threatening situation. The situation in Sudan is changing by the minute. The minister is in constant conversation with her counterparts around the world.
I want to take a moment to thank our diplomats, who have been courageous and working extremely hard. They have now been removed from the embassy. The embassy is closed. However, they continue to work to support Canada's efforts at both engaging in peace and helping Canadians. If anyone has a Sudanese Canadian friend, please make sure they register with ROCA so that we can help them immediately.
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It being 3:13 p.m., pursuant to order made on Thursday, June 23, 2022, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion at the second reading stage of Bill C-27.
Call in the members.
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The question is on the motion. Pursuant to Standing Order 69.1, the first question is on parts 1 and 2, including the schedule to clause 2 of the bill.
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I declare parts 1 and 2, including the schedule to clause 2, of the bill carried.
The next question is on part 3 of the bill.
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I declare part 3 of the bill carried.
The House has agreed to the entirety of Bill C-27, an act to enact the consumer privacy protection act, the personal information and data protection tribunal act and the artificial intelligence and data act and to make consequential and related amendments to other acts, at the second stage reading.
Accordingly, the bill stands referred to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology.
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- Apr/24/23 3:41:03 p.m.
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I wish to inform the House that, because of the deferred recorded divisions, Government Orders will be extended by 25 minutes.
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- Apr/24/23 3:41:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's responses to eight petitions. These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.
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- Apr/24/23 3:42:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on National Defence, entitled “A Secure and Sovereign Arctic”. Prior to asking that the government respond, I want to compliment the committee on how well committee members worked together to arrive at this report.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in relation to Bill C-281, an act to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law), the Broadcasting Act and the Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act. The committee has studied the bill and pursuant to Standing Order 97.1(1) requests a 30-day extension to consider it.
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Pursuant to Standing Order 97.1(3)(a), a motion to concur in the report is deemed moved, the question deemed put and a recorded division deemed demanded and deferred. Pursuant to order made on Thursday, June 23, 2022, the recorded division stands deferred until Wednesday, April 26, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.
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- Apr/24/23 3:43:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, we celebrate Vaisakhi on the Hill. We had the final prayer of the Akhand Path that commenced on Saturday. This is the continuous recitation of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. To all who celebrate, I want to wish them a happy Vaisakhi.
With that, I would be honoured to present, in both official languages, the following reports of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs: the 34th, 35th, 36th and 37th reports of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
The committee is requesting an extension for the consideration of objections to the reports of the federal electoral boundaries commissions from Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. The committee is requesting that the deadline be extended to June 9.
Mr. Speaker, you have responded to confirm that, if the House is not sitting when the reports come back, you will ensure that members receive those reports. That will help with the due diligence that was needed to have concurrence.
Pursuant to Standing Orders 104 and 114, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 38th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of the committees of the House.
To speed things up, I will do them all at once.
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- Apr/24/23 3:46:47 p.m.
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If the House gives its consent, I move that the 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th and 38th reports of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be concurred in.
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- Apr/24/23 3:47:06 p.m.
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All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay.
It is agreed.
The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say nay.
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moved that the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration presented on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, be concurred in.
She said: Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to this important motion before the House, the concurrence motion.
What we are dealing with is essentially seeking authority from the House to expand the scope of Bill S-245. Bill S-245 is a Senate bill that is before the House to address the situation of those who are commonly known as “lost Canadians”. Bill S-245 would amend the Citizenship Act to allow Canadians who previously lost their citizenship due to the age 28 rule to regain their citizenship. The age 28 rule means that second-generation Canadians born abroad were subject to the laws of citizenship under the former section 8 of the Citizenship Act, which required them to apply to certify their citizenship before they turned 28 years old.
In 2009 the Conservatives repealed this section through Bill C-37. However, the legislation did not restore citizenship to those who lost their citizenship prior to 2009. This oversight created major problems for many Canadians, as they somehow could lose their citizenship status as they turned 28. Many of them actually did not even know that was the situation they were faced with. It was only when applying for their passport, for example, that they realized they had lost their citizenship.
Bill S-245 seeks to fix the age 28 rule. However, the rule does not address other situations where Canadians have lost their citizenship. The archaic provisions of the Citizenship Act have resulted in many other lost Canadians, and New Democrats seek to actually fix this problem.
Mr. Speaker, 14 years ago, Bill C-37 passed in this House and came into force, and as a result of that, many people lost their citizenship rights. In fact, it created a scenario where Canada's Citizenship Act, for this group of lost Canadians, in many ways was not charter-compliant. For decades some Canadians have found themselves even to be stateless due to a number of these archaic immigration laws.
In 2007, the UN's Refugees magazine listed Canada as one of the top offending countries for making its own people stateless. In 2009, as I mentioned, the Conservatives said that they were going to fix the lost Canadian issue with Bill C-37. Sadly, this did not happen. Worse still, the Conservatives created a brand new group of lost Canadians, and today we have an opportunity before us to fix that.
Bill S-245, the bill that was introduced by Senator Martin, is now before the committee for citizenship and immigration, and the bill aims to address this group of lost Canadians, lost due to the age 28 rule. I want to be very clear that the NDP wholeheartedly supports ensuring those who one day woke up and found themselves without Canadian status are made whole. This absolutely needs to be done. However, it is the NDP's strongest view that the scope of Bill S-245 is too narrow. The NDP wants to seize this opportunity to fix the lost Canadian issue once and for all.
Currently, there is a large group of Canadians who are deemed to be second-class citizens, due to the Conservatives' first-generation cut-off rule brought on by the Harper administration in 2009. Bill C-37 ended the extension of citizenship to second-generations born abroad. By stripping their right to pass on citizenship to their children if they were born outside of Canada, the Canadian government has caused undue hardship to many families. For some, it means separating children from parents. Some even find themselves stateless.
I spoke with Patrick Chandler. He is a Canadian who, while born abroad, spent most of his life in Canada. As an adult, he worked abroad, married someone from another country and had children. He was later offered a job in British Columbia. When he moved back to Canada, he had to leave his wife and children behind because he could not pass on his citizenship to his children. He had to go through an arduous process to finally reunite with them a year later.
There are many families being impacted in this way, and it is wrong. We should not put Canadians in those kinds of situations, yet here we are and that is what they have to suffer through. There are many families being impacted.
Another family faced with this situation is the family of Emma Kenyon. In fact, Emma lived here in Canada, as did her husband. However, they worked abroad and they met abroad. They had a child abroad. That child is stateless because neither Emma nor her husband has status in that country. They are now in a situation where they have a stateless child born to a Canadian. This is so wrong, and we need to fix this problem. Immigration officials said to them at the time that, before their child was born, they had a choice. They could actually travel back to Canada and have their child be born in Canada.
This, of course, did not make any sense. It was during the COVID period, when, basically, it was unsafe for her to travel. If Emma did travel back to Canada, she would be without a family doctor or a gynecologist to care for her pregnancy. None of that made any sense, but that is what she was told to do. Of course, she did not risk the birth of her child in that situation. She did not risk her own health either. As a result, her child was born abroad and is now in a stateless situation. It should never have been this way.
Families are so frustrated with these archaic immigration laws, especially with the stripping of the rights of immigrants having children born abroad. Those rights were stripped because of the Conservatives’ Bill C-37. Families are now taking the government to court to address this inequity. The Conservatives deemed first-generation Canadians born abroad to be less worthy and less Canadian, even though many had grown up in Canada. The implications are so serious that people are taking the government to court.
At the citizenship and immigration committee, when the opportunity arises, I will be moving amendments to ensure that this does not happen to anyone else. The NDP amendments would ensure that first-generation, born-abroad Canadians would have the right to pass on their citizenship rights to their children based on a connections test. They would also retroactively restore citizenship to persons who have not been recognized as citizens since the second-generation cut-off rule was enacted in 2009.
The same principles would apply to adoptees as well. We need to make sure that individuals and families that adopt children are not going to be caught in this bad situation. For those who do not wish to have citizenship conferred upon them, upon notification to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, these changes would not apply to them.
This will mean that people like Patrick, whom I mentioned, and people like Emma and her family would not have to suffer the challenges they face as a result of Bill C-37’s stripping of their rights.
In addition to the amendments related to the first-generation cut-off rule, I will also be moving amendments to symbolically recognize those who died before citizenship was conferred upon them. For example, many of Canada's war heroes fought and died for Canada. However, they were never recognized as Canadians. The NDP amendments would also honour them and recognize them as citizens, retroactive to birth.
The situation with what I call “war heroes” is this. The first Governor General of Canada, in 1867, right after Confederation, said that Canadians were a new “nationality”. However, according to Canada's immigration laws, Canadian citizenship did not exist prior to January 1, 1947. That means that no soldiers who fought and died for Canada in battles like Vimy Ridge or D-Day are deemed to be Canadians.
Bill C-37 was supposed to fix this, but it did not happen. Don Chapman, who has fought for so long on the issue of lost Canadians and trying to rectify those concerns, indicated that “the government has confirmed they're leaving out all the war dead [pre-1947]. So, the war dead in Canada were really just British. We might as well just scratch the Maple Leaf off their headstones.”
Symbolically recognizing those who fought for Canada and ensuring that they are recognized as citizens would have zero implications, no legal consequence whatsoever or liability for the government. It is really a strictly symbolic gesture, and it is an important one, especially for family members of loved ones who fought and died for Canada. I see some of these family members on Remembrance Day every year. Many veterans went to war and fought for Canada, and never came back. We should remember them as Canadians.
Beyond this, there are a couple of other categories of lost Canadians, who, due to one of the discriminatory rules, such as the gender discrimination rule that existed in Canada, were not recognized as citizens. The NDP's amendments would aim to fix that as well. Suffice it to say, there are long lists of people who have been hurt by this set of rules, and successive governments have said they would fix it. However, it never came to be. Now we have a chance to actually do that work. It is important we do that work now.
I fear that the Conservatives would not support this effort. At committee, when the senator and the sponsor of the bill were before us at committee to talk about this bill, the Conservatives indicated they wanted to just ensure the bill would be left as is and address only the 28-year rule, not deal with the other categories of lost Canadians. To me, that is wrong. Their argument is that it is too complicated, that we do not have time and that if the matter goes back before the Senate, then an election might be called and the bill might just die. That is, of course, if the Conservatives want that to happen.
We could actually work together, collaboratively, to say that we are going to fix this problem once and for all, for lost Canadians. We want to make sure that people like Emma Kenyon, whose child was born stateless, would never be in that situation. We could actually make that happen by amending the bill.
I know that Conservative members, even their leader, would say that they support the immigrant community and that they are there for them. If they are there for them, first, I would say that Bill C-37 should never have stripped of their rights the immigrants who became Canadians, such as myself. If I had a child born abroad, my child should have citizenship conferred upon them. The Conservatives took that away. We have a chance today to fix that, to say that immigrants, such as myself, would be able to have the same rights as those who were born in Canada, and be able to pass on their citizenship rights to their children born abroad.
To be sure that there is a connection between individuals like that, we could put forward a connections test, such as, for example, having been in Canada for 1,095 days. This happens to be the same number of days required, through the Citizenship Act, for people getting their citizenship. We could put in provisions like that to ensure there is a clear connection between them and Canada. There is no reason to say that we are not going to do any of this and that we are just going to strip them of their rights and not recognize them. Let us fix this once and for all.
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