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Business of Supply

This was a Committee of the Whole examination of the immigration minister’s spending plans, where Conservative members used their questions to press the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on asylum numbers, border screening, visa decisions, fraudulent immigration consultants, temporary foreign workers, and the removal of people with no legal status. The minister pointed to falling asylum claim numbers, cooperation with provinces to relocate refugees, enforcement actions including the removal of 23,000 people last year, and Bill C-12 as a measure to further reduce asylum claims. Liberal members also used some questions to highlight immigration’s economic benefits and summer jobs for youth.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

248 statements

Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“We work with police and border agencies to check every applicant. We make sure they are not a security threat.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we work very closely with public safety partners, including the CBSA, the RCMP, policing partners and provincial authorities. We review each applicant to ensure that they do not pose a threat prior—

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Since 2023, we have added rules to check international students' acceptance letters and follow up on suspicious cases.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, since 2023, we have introduced integrity measures, including stronger verification and letters of acceptance to all international students. We have made consistent follow-ups on flagged cases—

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“I do not know who the member is talking about. In 2024, we made international students show they have more money to study here, and we update that amount every September.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I am not sure to whom he is referring. In 2024, we raised the financial requirements for all international students coming to Canada to study, and those are adjusted every year in September as well.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Our immigration department screens everyone who applies to come to Canada to work, study, or live here permanently.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, IRCC initially screens each applicant when they apply for a visa or an electronic travel authorization document, whether it is for work, for study or for permanent residency.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“We have strong rules to protect our system. Trained immigration officers review everyone who applies to come to Canada.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, let us calm down here a little bit. We have integrity measures. We have strengthened all of the measures. We are working diligently. Everyone who applies to Canada is assessed by trained immigration officers.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“We check everyone who wants to come to Canada. Border officials remove serious criminals who have no right to be here, and we work with the police and the RCMP.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we screen every applicant who is coming to Canada, regardless of the reason they are coming. CBSA removes serious criminals who have no right to be here. We work with policing. We work with RCMP—

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Serious crimes deserve serious punishments. Immigration law does not give anyone special treatment or easy penalties.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, serious offences like this deserve serious consequences. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act does not include anything on special treatment or leniency for—

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Public safety is very important in Canada. Judges and courts are the ones who enforce the law.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, public safety is of paramount importance in Canada. Obviously, it is the courts and the judges that apply the law.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Border officials deport criminals after they are sentenced. If the court gives them the right sentence, we remove them.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, criminals are deported by the CBSA after sentencing occurs. If they are sentenced appropriately, action is taken.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“I cannot talk about a specific case tonight. I will only say that serious crimes deserve serious consequences.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, again, I cannot speak to any specific case because that is not my role here tonight. What I can say and reconfirm is that serious crime deserves serious consequences.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Our immigration law does not cover this kind of treatment. We take all crimes seriously, and border officers deport people when needed.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act does not include anything on this type of treatment. We treat all offences seriously. The CBSA deports individuals as needed.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“If a non-citizen in Canada commits a crime, border services will investigate them. Other issues should go to local police and the courts.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, if there is a non-Canadian in Canada who has committed an offence, the Canada Border Services Agency will investigate. If there are other reasons, I would suggest provincial policing partners as well as the courts.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Serious crimes deserve serious punishment. Canada's border agency investigates all of these cases and takes proper action.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, serious crime deserves serious consequences. The CBSA investigates all these cases and takes appropriate action.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Canada's border agency removed more than 23,000 people who were not allowed in the country last year.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, as my colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, said today, the Canada Border Services Agency removed over 23,000 inadmissible people last year.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Border officials and public safety officers work to investigate and follow up on these cases.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, again, the Canada Border Services Agency and Public Safety work to ensure they follow up on these matters and investigate them.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“People who commit serious crimes will be investigated and deported.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, serious crime deserves serious consequences. There are investigations that happen, and they will be deported.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“We have taken real action and we will keep working.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we have taken considerable action. Actions speak louder than words in this wonderful institution we have. We have laws and we will continue to work with—

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Our laws already allow us to act. When a non-citizen in Canada commits a crime, border officers investigate them, and they can be removed from the country.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I recognize the member opposite had a private member’s bill that was voted down. I appreciate her advocacy. We have laws. There is nothing in IRPA that allows that. If we find a person in Canada who has committed a crime and is a non-Canadian, the Canada Border Services Agency investigates, all of them, and that person could become inadmissible and removed from Canada.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“When a non-citizen is found guilty of a serious crime, border officials investigate. If the process confirms it, they are deported.”

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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, when a non-citizen is convicted of a serious crime, immigration consequences follow. The CBSA will investigate, and there is due process, if it is there, and then they do get deported.

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Lena Metlege Diab

Liberal
“Serious crimes deserve serious punishments. Canada has deported 23,000 people. Our immigration laws do not allow for lighter sentences, and punishments must fit the crime.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I said that serious crimes deserve serious consequences. The CBSA has deported, as the public safety minister said today, 23,000 people. There is nothing in the immigration law that allows for discounting sentences. Sentences must be proportionate to the crime and the context. As I said, we are—

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