Rempel Garner demands Carney fire immigration, justice ministers

OTTAWA — Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to fire Immigration Minister Diab and Justice Minister Fraser, accusing the pair of allowing Canada's immigration and justice systems to become disorderly.At a press conference Tuesday, Rempel Garner said recent court decisions involving non-citizens convicted of serious crimes, combined with a newly disclosed Canada Border Services Agency intelligence report on criminal activity involving international students, show the government has lost control of the immigration system."The Prime Minister must fire the Justice Minister and the Immigration Minister and replace them with people who are willing to set the course straight," Rempel Garner said. She argued judges are increasingly handing out lighter sentences to non-citizens to shield them from deportation, creating what she described as "a two-tier justice system.""Giving non-citizens who have been convicted of serious crimes in Canada lenient sentences to avoid deportation creates a two-tier justice system where Canadian citizens are given harsher sentences than non-citizens who broke our laws," she said. Rempel Garner pointed to several recent cases in which judges cited the immigration consequences of a conviction when imposing conditional discharges or house arrest rather than custodial sentences..She also referenced a classified CBSA intelligence report, first reported last week by Global News, that found criminal charges involving Indian international students rose sharply between 2016 and 2024 and alleged the Lawrence Bishnoi gang exploited Canada's international student program."The report indicated that crimes committed by Indian nationals in Canada on temporary student permits skyrocketed by a whopping 8,800% from 2016 to 2024," she said, adding that approximately 4,000 international students were charged with nearly 18,000 criminal offences between 2019 and 2023, many of them serious or organized crime-related."That is insane, and it's disgusting, and it should be considered one of Canada's greatest political scandals and tragedies."Rempel Garner rejected Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent assertion that the government has regained control of Canada's immigration system."We have 4,000 foreign students committing 18,000 crimes who are likely to get sweetheart deals to avoid deportation. That is not an immigration system that is under control," she said. The Calgary MP renewed Conservative calls to amend the Criminal Code so a person's immigration status cannot be considered during sentencing, strengthen security screening for foreign students and temporary workers, tighten the definition of serious criminality under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and expand reporting on deportations and removal warrants. She also accused Diab and Fraser of failing to respond to concerns raised earlier this year by the Auditor General about fraud in Canada's international student program."Months have gone by and the Prime Minister has allowed these two people to continue to destroy Canada's immigration consensus," Rempel Garner said. Rempel Garner said Conservatives remain prepared to work with the government on immigration reforms, but argued Ottawa must first acknowledge the scale of the problem."Canada's Conservatives continue to stand ready to work collaboratively to get policies passed with anyone who's willing to admit that these are problems and to fix Canada's profoundly broken immigration system," she said.

Rempel Garner demands Carney fire immigration, justice ministers

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