Mr. Chairman, Respected Committee Members, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Even though Section 12 of Bill C-18 states that all citizens have the same rights, powers, privileges, obligations, duties, responsibilities and status without regard to the manner in which their citizenship was acquired, some sections of the bill discriminate against immigrants and prove otherwise.

Section 16 empowers the state to strip the citizenship of a nationalized Canadian without offering him/her the same protections entitled by a Canadian-born citizen who has been charged with a similar crime.

Section 17 allows a judge to deal with all matters regarding the denationalization of a person who is being accused of acquiring citizenship by false representation or fraud in secret and in the absence of the accused and his/her counsel. This definitely violates the accused of his/her Charter of Rights.

Section 18 virtually permits the minister of citizenship to denationalize a citizen by merely the bureaucratic procedure. This opens to abuses, which have not been uncommon even in Canada.

This would affect many, many Canadians. According to the 2001 Census, 5.4 million people, or 18.4% of the total Canadian population were born outside the country. By this time, the number must be close to 6 million, which accounts for 20% of Canadians. And if you pursue the matter a little further to ask Canadians where their parents, grand parents or great grand parents came from, you probably find out that other than the aboriginals, almost everybody's parents, grand parents and/or great grand parents were born elsewhere.

Why is Canada such an attractive place to the rest of the world? Certainly not because of our economic power nor because of our military might, it is because Canada is viewed as the great champion of civil liberty.

Corroboratively, for the same reasons, Canada has been dominating the United Nations top rankings ever since the Human Development Index was launched in 1993.

It is true, after 9-11, we have all lost our innocence. But it does not mean that we have to go berserk. Sacrificing our hard earned civil rights to pursue something that may or may not be true is simply not worth it.

Other nations may choose to depend simply on force to curb outside attacks, but Canada has a unique but superb weapon: our pluralistic all-inclusive society, which is a model for the whole world to emulate to fight terrorism.

To go back on this winning formula, and to seriously abridge our civil liberty as portion of Bill C-18 does is inconceivable. Without a doubt, this would alienate one-fifth of the people on this land, hurt Canada's reputation, and curtail Canada's ability to become the world's most liberal and democratic society.

To append a personal note for conclusion: I was born outside of Canada. I was born and raised in China and came to Canada at the age of 30. I later became a Canadian citizen by choice. But that does not make me a lesser Canadian. Let me make it clear: if this country is in danger, I am ready to take up arms to defend her, and ready to die. The reason cannot be simpler. This is my home. My family and my children for generations to come will be living here. I love this country and Canada has won my heart. I am proud to say that at the age of seven (I mean my citizenship age as a Canadian), I was allowed the opportunity and encouraged to run for one of the high political offices on behalf of one of the most reputable political parties in Canada. What a trust and honour! I believe the hearts of millions of Canadians are just like mine. Therefore today I urge my government to consider seriously this: do not strip the sense of honour of Canadians regardless of their birth places. Do not hurt the hearts of millions of Canadians but to warm them further. These hearts, as I have indicated, are the superb weapon to fight terrorism and to meet many colossal challenges to come.

Thank you.