Alghabra tables a private member bill to amend Security Certificate Act

OTTAWA - Today, Omar Alghabra, Liberal Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erindale, tabled Bill C-523 entitled an Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate).

In February 2007, the Supreme Court gave the government a full year to improve the law, at the time, citing a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Conservative government chose to delay the presentation of their proposed changes giving parliamentarians very little time to have a substantive debate.

“The Conservatives have suffocated that debate and Canadians deserve a candid discussion,” said Omar Alghabra. “If I, a lone parliamentarian with modest staff, was able to draft a bill with the help of experts within two weeks, surely the Conservatives could have tabled theirs sooner and given Parliamentarians enough time to exhaustively debate it.”

Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin publicly acknowledged that many parliamentarians had to hold their noses and adopt Bill C-3 because of the lack of time given by the government. Witnesses provided compelling evidence that the law is clearly flawed.

“This matter touches upon the notion of fundamental justice and has severe consequences on people’s lives,” said Alghabra. “Canadians deserve a serious debate and this bill is my contribution to it based on recommendations I have gathered from legal experts that have appeared before the House and Senate committees.”

“I call on the Conservative government, now that we have met the Supreme Court deadline, to accept that there is a need for more reforms to the law and urge them to engage in this much needed debate,” said Alghabra.

Bill C-523 offers some amendments that touch upon the following: