Canadian parliament is currently engaged in a second reading of a controversial new bill, ironically titled the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act. Bill C-49, which seeks to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, would in fact target and penalize refugee claimants rather than human smugglers.
The bill would essentially create a two-tiered system, in which refugees deemed to be ‘designated foreign nationals’ would be treated differently from other refugee claimants. The conditions in which the Minister would be allowed to use this classification are vague and loosely defined, ranging from whether the Minister feels that the government would be able to process the refugee claimants in ‘a timely manner’, to the arbitrary classification of ‘irregular’ entrance to Canada.
Under the new laws, groups of ‘designated foreign nationals’ (children included) would face indiscriminate mass detention, in the form of a mandatory one-year incarceration without review. After the initial twelve months, review of the claimants’ detention would be restricted to once every six months.
If the refugee claimants were eventually granted refugee status, the new bill would prevent them from applying for permanent resident status for another five years after the decision, and would prevent designated refugees from applying for travel documents until they obtained permanent residence status. These provisions would seriously impede the reunification of separated families.
These proposed measures would also appear to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to contravene numerous international laws. In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court stated that detention without review for long periods is contrary to the Charter. The legislations imposed by C-49 would clearly entail such detentions. Both the Charter and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee everyone the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.
The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Canada supposedly adheres, specifically prohibits the punishment of refugees for gaining illegal entry, and also requires state parties to grant refugees travel documents, unless “compelling reasons of national security or public order” can be found for refusing to grant such documents.
Finally, the Convention on the Rights of the Child demands the quick response of governments faced with applications for family reunification, and requires that no child be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily, stipulating that such detentions “be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”
Bill C-49 not only constitutes an assault on the rights of refugees, but also proves to be unnecessary and ineffective. The existing Immigration and Refugee Protection Act already provides important legal avenues for the prosecution of human smugglers, and proposes severe penalties for those convicted. Furthermore, past laws in Australia and Canada, mandating the detention of refugee claimants or restricting their ability to apply for permanent residency, have only resulted in trauma and failure.
While seeking to end the human rights abuses perpetrated by many human smugglers is certainly an admirable goal, it seems clear that bill C-49 is not the tool with which to do this.
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