Q & A with Minister Kenney on C-49 An Act to Prevent Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System

The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism answers questions about Bill C-49, Mr. Fantino joining the Conservative caucus, questions on the citizenship exam and  WikiLeaks in the Foyer of the House of Commons.

StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto-

Question: Mr. Kenney, are you going to withdraw C-49 since it won't get past second reading?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, no. We proposed this legislation. If the opposition intends to vote against this strong but balanced effort to crack down on human smuggling and queue- jumping, they'll have to stand up and vote for in the House of Commons and be accountable to voters. I find it curious that the Liberals hid their opposition to this crackdown on smuggling until after the by-elections because I'm pretty sure they know where Canadians stand on this. Overwhelmingly, Canadians are telling MPs from right across the partisan spectrum that they do not tolerate this kind of human smuggling, these criminal operations that are targeting Canada and treating it like a doormat and they expect Parliament to take firm action.And what they got from the Liberals during the by-election campaign was politics and now they're getting ideology when Canadians expectactions.

Question: Did you welcome Mr. Fantino in caucus? Did you welcome your new colleague today in caucus, Mr. Fantino, expect he'll be one of your cabinet colleagues in short order?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, that will be up to the Prime Minister obviously. I think you did see we welcomed Mr. Fantino and he had an historic breakthrough for the Conservative Party in a riding that is one of the core Liberal constituencies in the country. We think that's a positive affirmation of our government's message on economic growth as well as combatting crime and quite frankly human smuggling as well.

Question: Are you prepared to make it a confidence issue? C-49, is it a confidence matter?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, the government hasn't taken a position on that. We do know this, that Canadians - this is one of the highest priorities of Canadians - you can talk to MPs about that. They will confirm that in terms of the phone calls, emails and feedback they've gotten from constituents, Canadians are still very concerned about this country being targeted by smuggling syndicates, by the systematic abuse of the fairness and integrity of our immigration system by these smuggling syndicates and frankly their customers. And Canadians expect us to take action. So we will not give up on this strong but reasonable effort to stop the smugglers from targeting Canada.

Question: On the citizenship exam, sir, you've made some changes to it. Are the thresholds too tough? Is there a problem in the process here?

Hon. Jason Kenney: No, I think actually it's a great success. The reality is that the old citizenship test saw about 97 percent of people passing. Many immigrants complained to me that it was insultingly easy and one of the big problems we had was there were only five series of questions and answers which were circulating on the black market. People were able to buy the answers and memorize the answers before taking the test. So there was pretty widespread cheating as far as we can tell. The main reason why the pass rate has gone down is because we're not scrambling the questions and answers, a very simple anti- cheating device. Yes, the information is more comprehensive and, you know what? We don't take the condescending view that new Canadians aren't smart enough to learn about the basic facts of Canada's history, geography and democratic traditions.

Question: (Inaudible) opposition parties are now committed to killing the bill at second reading. Where do you go practically now?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, you know what? We've seen opposition parties divided before on critical government initiatives so I'll give you one example, Bill C-11, the refugee reform bill that I brought forward in the spring, we had one faction of the Liberal caucus supporting it, the more ideological faction opposing it. So I don't know where they're going to land on this but I'll tell you we're not going to give up the fight on behalf of Canadians. They're not going to allow opposition - the opposition's ideological, you know, view to trump meaningful action to stop human smuggling so I intend to bring the bill forward for a vote.

Question: When?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, I would say I can't give you a date but I would hope -

Question: Why not now? You know how everybody's going to vote.

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, we'll consult with our -

Question: Are you going to try to change their minds, offering amendments?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Listen, we just heard about Liberal Party's position this morning. Give us a chance to reflect on that.

Question: On C-11 you did make a number of compromises and changes to satisfy the opposition. Are you prepared to do that on this one?

Hon. Jason Kenney: Well, the way you make - you see that was only because the opposition allowed it to proceed to committee where we could consider amendments. And I think I demonstrated as a minister and the government also demonstrated our willingness to work cooperatively with the opposition on reasonable amendments. I always signalled that if they had reasonable amendments that would maintain the objective of stopping the smugglers from targeting Canada, we would consider them. But they won't even consider the amendment process because apparently the news today is they intend to vote against the bill in principle. They are apparently in principle opposed to any meaningful action to crack down on smuggling.

Question: But they don't have the same system as ours. I mean have you been warned that this bill could be against the Charter?

Hon. Jason Kenney: You know we are confident that the bill conforms to the Canadian Constitution and the Charter. We think the provisions are very reasonable. There's a lot of fear mongering and alarmism about aspects of the bill. I would point out, for example,  that with the adoption of our new refugee reform system which will come into effect sometime in 2011, refugee claimants will have a hearing within two or three months and so bona fide refugees who need Canada's protection would receive that and even those who have arrived in an identified smuggling arrangement would be released from detention at the end of their claim, at approval of their claim in two to three months. That's not unreasonable to give our security agencies the time that they require to do the necessary identity work and security background checks, all of which is essential to the operation of our immigration law. Thank you very much.