Controversial border bill in Canada is 'about pleasing Trump,' says non-profit
Earlier this month, the federal government introduced Bill C-12, which addresses border security in Canada, and human rights organizations are sounding the alarm.
According to Public Safety Canada’s announcement from Oct. 8, Bill C-12, or Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, draws on elements of Bill C-2 to “combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of illegal fentanyl, crack down on money laundering, dismantle criminal networks, and improve the integrity of our immigration system.”
The same human rights organizations that argued that Bill C-2 was an attack on refugees and migrants is calling Bill C-12 “Trump-like” and say its introduction “solves none of Bill C-2’s problems.”
A statement released by the coalition of civil liberties, data privacy, refugee, migrant rights and gender justice organizations “strongly opposes” the introduction of the border security bill and suggests that it “seeks to fast track, rather than address, many aspects of Bill C-2’s myriad problems.”
“Prime Minister Carney is showing that his government continues to be aligned with conservative Trump-like anti-migrant sentiment,” states Karen Cocq, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network. “But civil society groups remain united in rejecting this agenda and calling for the withdrawal of both bills.”
Cocq argues that Bill C-12 is the government’s “repackaging” of Bill C-2 that “leaves intact the measures to block refugee hearings, impose arbitrary retroactive one-year bars, and grant ministers mass immigration status-cancellation powers.”
“The story of this legislative package is the same today as it was on day one of Bill C-2’s introduction; it’s about pleasing President Trump,” said Matt Hatfield, executive director of OpenMedia, a North American non-profit that focuses on digital rights and online surveillance.
“Canadians reject this multi-layered concession of our rights and freedoms to American pressure, and we expect lawmakers to resoundingly vote against both bills.”
This comes as Canada’s neighbours down south are protesting violent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation raids.
Here’s what you should know about the new border security bill Ottawa wants tabled in Canada.
How the border security bill could affect immigrants in Canada
sockagphoto/Shutterstock
The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association (CILA) argue that Bill C-12 introduces “sweeping changes to immigration law under the guise of border security.”
In an article published on Oct. 16, the organization says that the proposed measures “undermine established immigration legal processes and expand the government’s discretionary powers.”
Some of the measures in question include:
- Giving Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) the authorization to share client information like identity, status, and immigration documentation with federal, provincial, and territorial partners
- Allowing the government to cancel, suspend or change immigration documents, and to suspend, cancel or stop accepting new applications when such action is determined to be in the public interest
- Pause acceptance of new visas, permits, PR applications
- Pause or cancel the processing of visas, permits, PR applications already in the inventory
- Asylum claims made by people more than one year after first arriving in Canada after June 24, 2020, won’t be processed. This would apply to students and temporary residents, regardless of whether they left the country and returned
- Asylum claims from people who enter Canada from the U.S. along the land border between ports of entry and make a claim after 14 days won’t be processed
CILA stresses that Bill C-12 would provide the government the power to impose these measures without review, notice or giving people the opportunity to respond.
“The legislation, if passed, would cause Canada to compromise fundamental principles in a way that mirrors concerning developments in the United States,” stated the association.
Measures affecting digital privacy
fizkes/Shutterstock
One of the major points of contention in Bill C-2 is a measure that would allow law enforcement to gather Canadians’ personal information from telecommunication companies without a warrant. This includes names, addresses and telephone numbers of a customer associated with a particular IP address.
Ottawa didn’t include these controversial measures from Bill C-12 in the hopes that it would allow other rules to pass quicker.
“The government has badly burned public trust and left the distinct impression that privacy is not a priority,” wrote University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist in a recent blog post.
He adds that this new potential legislation was likely introduced not because the government “came to its senses on the privacy implications,” but because in a minority government, the Liberal Party couldn’t find collaborators to get Bill C-2 passed in its original form.
“Our government has made it abundantly clear that they will continue to fight for every privacy-violating measure Bill C-2 still contains, and are only introducing Bill C-12 to get restrictions on migrant and refugee rights adopted sooner,” echoes International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group national coordinator Tim McSorley.
Human rights organizations call for full withdrawal of both Bill C-2 and Bill C-12
Both Bill C-12 and Bill C-2 need to pass both the House of Commons and the Senate and receive Royal Assent before these changes can be implemented.
The coalition of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, reiterated its call for a full withdrawal of both bills in a statement on Oct. 14.
Migrant Rights Network has also created a petition, urging Canadians to prevent the new border security bill from passing in Canada.