“I'm saying hello instead of answering your question.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
Recent debates
8 latest topics
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
57 statements
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
19 statements
Arab Heritage Month Act
5 statements
The Economy
15 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Housing
12 statements
The Environment
2 statements
Government Orders
Business of Supply
A bill to make many changes to Canada's immigration and border control laws. During debate, Conservatives asked questions about specific cases and raised concerns about fraud, while the Liberal minister responded but often discussed unrelated topics like Canada Summer Jobs and praised a Liberal colleague.
“The IRB is independent. It follows laws that are out of our hands. I won't say what role Parliament has.”
“I don't want to say yes or no to your actual question. Let me just make a vague statement about laws and courts and how there are consequences for criminals.”
“You're asking me a hard question. I don't want to answer directly. Let me say the IRB is independent and hope that's enough to change the subject.”
“I'm going to ignore your question about whether refugee policy and the IRB are at odds. If a person commits a crime, border agents can investigate. I won't say whether there's a problem.”
“I'm going to dodge your question about my personal involvement. The IRB is independent. They have to follow the law. They're just following the law.”
“I want to make it sound like we handle crimes by immigrants well. I hope this answer dodges your real question.”
“I want to make this process sound official and complicated so you'll stop asking questions.”
“I want to dismiss that article. Those rules don't really let criminals delay hearings.”
“I don't want to answer that. The IRB says it won't happen much. It's not a big deal.”
“We are focused on removing criminals. I am saying nothing about the rules you asked about.”
“You caught me. I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later.”
“We could review some cases before. But we did not have a comprehensive system to track everyone leaving until now. I want you to think I am just fixing a problem. Do not ask why we did not do this earlier.”
“We didn't have an exit tracking system before. Now we're building one.”
“The system is working. We are helping temporary residents follow the law.”
“I won't give the real numbers you asked for. Instead let me change the subject and talk about the small number of bad people we remove.”
“I want to skip your question about undocumented people and talk about rules for temporary residents instead.”
“I will talk about fraud detection and removal instead of the number you asked for.”
“I don't want to give you the number you asked for. I will talk about other things instead. Look, we did some stuff. Doesn't that sound good?”
“You keep asking about specific numbers. I won't give them to you. We passed a bill. Our plan is working. Numbers are down.”