Student Refugee Scam, Hansard 5/18: Marriage, Marijuana, EKOS, Citizenship-Bible

Student refugee scam

Immigration officials are probing a scam in which citizens of Mexico and Korea are being allowed into Canada to study English only to disappear and claim refugee status.

Hansard May 18, 2005

Marriage

Mr. Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, CPC): Mr. Speaker, my first petition is from a number of petitioners calling on Parliament to use all possible legislative and administrative measures, including the invoking of the notwithstanding clause if necessary, to preserve the correct definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

[. . . . ] Citizenship


Mr. Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, CPC): Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure of tabling a petition from people in Prince Edward Island who call on the government to return to its previous policy of allowing holy books to be made available to new citizens at citizenship ceremonies around the country.

These petitioners note that a citizenship judge terminated this policy alleging that the policy discriminated against non-religious immigrants. Up to last year holy books were simply displayed on tables at the back of the hall free for new citizens to take. These new citizens were not handed the books. They were not forced on them. The judge produced no evidence to justify his inappropriate decision to ban the availability of holy books.

Therefore, these petitioners ask for the citizenship commission to return to the previous policy of just a few years back which has served our multicultural nation so very well over so many years.

* * *

Marijuana

Mrs. Betty Hinton (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to rise today to present a petition in memory of RCMP officers Brock Myrol, Leo Johnston, Anthony Gordon and Peter Schiemann.

The petitioners state:

“We the undersigned residents of Canada draw the attention of the House to the following:

That the tragic deaths of four RCMP officers reinforces our belief that decriminalizing the possession of marijuana will only serve to increase the number of grow operations throughout the country; that the number of Canadian youth using marijuana will increase throughout our country; that the use of marijuana damages the health and well-being of our citizens; that the decriminalization of possession of marijuana signals to the--

The Speaker: Order, please. The hon. member knows she cannot read the petition to the House. I know she will give a brief summary.

Mrs. Betty Hinton: Mr. Speaker, the petitioners ask that Bill C-17 and any legislation designed to decriminalize the possession and use of marijuana be withdrawn.

[. . . . ] Question No. 122--[on EKOS]

Mr. Dean Allison:

Since October 23, 1993, did Ekos [EKOS] or its principals receive any: (a) grants, contributions or loan guarantees and, if so, (i) what was the source (i.e., department, agency, crown corporation, special operating agency or foundation), value, date made and reasons for providing the funding in each case, (ii) what is their present status, whether paid, repaid, or unpaid, including the value of the repayment, (iii) what was the total amount received; and (b) contracts and, if so, (i) were the contracts fulfilled, (ii) what were their contract number, source, value, date made, reasons for providing the funding, (iii) were these contracts tendered and if the tendering was limited what would be the reason for the limitation, (iv) what was the total amount of contracts obtained, and what was the total amount of all the funds provided to Ekos or its principals, (v) was it a standing offer, and, if so, what was the number and type of standing offer?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.):

Question No. 122 is extremely broad. It targets over 140 government organizations, many of which have undergone significant organizational and systems changes over the 12 year period covered by the question. The length of the question makes the task all the more difficult given that, under the applicable government records retention policy, federal departments usually keep their records for a period of six years only.

Extensive work has already been done to collect the relevant information from more than 140 government organizations in answer to this question. However, and in spite of the extensive efforts invested so far, the work is not yet finalized and a verification of the information has not yet been completed. Thus, more time is needed to perform the type of quality control that is necessary to ensure that the information provided to the House is as comprehensive and reliable as possible.

The government will provide a supplementary reply to this question as soon as the requested information is ready.