Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, I trust that you had a great Thanksgiving and are in good spirits and will answer some questions today.

Leader, a recent article in The Globe and Mail reported that, due to a backlog created by federal government policy decisions, thousands of highly skilled immigrants are being forced to return to their home countries as their work permits expire. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a steep drop in the number of immigrants being granted permanent residency in Canada, and your government introduced measures to supposedly reverse this trend, except the opposite happened, leader.

Canada’s immigration bureaucracy wasn’t able to keep up with the influx of applications, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, imposed a year-long pause on new applications from people who already lived and worked in Canada. Now thousands of immigrants with Canadian work experience are waiting in limbo and may very well have to leave Canada if their work permits expire before they get their invitation to apply to become permanent residents — for many, this is happening very soon.

Leader, why isn’t your government doing everything in its power to clear the backlog and fix the mess that it created?

Senator Plett: The answer to my question was obviously no. It wouldn’t have taken that much time to say that. No, you don’t know how many.

Leader, your government’s lax approach to this is truly alarming. We’re talking about foreign criminals who are currently missing in our country with a high chance of reoffending, some of whom have already been convicted of multiple sexual offences. It isn’t enough for your government to simply say that it’s taking this seriously. Your actions clearly do not reflect that.

An Auditor General’s report on immigration removals from 2020 flagged serious concerns that the border agency had lost track of a large number of these individuals, sometimes for years. Even high-priority cases were stalled or inactive.

Leader, when will these dangerous individuals be removed from Canada? It is the safety of Canadians that is at stake here. Are we right in that?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, keeping on the subject of government failures, your government has recently faced questions over its failure to account for missing foreign criminals set for deportation. As of December of last year, leader, the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, says the whereabouts are unknown for 29,719 people facing removal from Canada, including 469 who are facing deportation for criminality or criminal convictions in Canada.

Many planned deportations were put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic. CBSA has not said how many offenders it has lost track of who were facing deportation for criminal activity during the pandemic. I have raised this question previously, leader, with Trudeau government ministers. Hopefully, enough time has passed that your government will finally be able to give us an answer today. So let’s see, leader.

Can you provide us with the number of foreign criminals set for deportation who went missing during the pandemic that still remain unaccounted for?

Senator Plett: Well, of course, my question was why it took as long to come out with a statement. So I don’t know where I partly provided that answer.

Senator Gold, according to an article in the National Post:

More than half a million dollars has been paid out by Trudeau-led Canadian governments between 2016 and 2021 to an organization fronted by Laith Marouf, a serial dispenser of hatred towards Jews and Israel, among others.

While I understand your government tasked itself with cutting off funding following the scandal of Mr. Marouf’s tweets, the fact is that department heads in your government were involved in approving the programs and funding in question.

Leader, this reflects serious shortcomings in your government’s vetting procedures. I’m sure you will agree that Canadians deserve better, Senator Gold.

What were the vetting processes, if any, that your government undertook before hiring Mr. Marouf? I’m sure you have to agree that it is truly concerning that your government missed something as serious as this multiple times.