Feds urged to suspend Safe Third Country agreement
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added his voice Wednesday to the chorus condemning the Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the border — a practice the U.S. president abruptly reversed later in the day with the stroke of a pen.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands) and Victoria NDP MP Murray Rankin were among those calling on Trudeau to condemn the policy under which asylum seekers who cross illegally into the U.S. were charged with federal crimes and separated from their children, who were then detained in guarded, fenced enclosures.
Trudeau had remained largely silent on the issue, saying only that he did not want to “play politics” on immigration policy. On Wednesday, however, his position shifted, just hours before Trump appeared to capitulate to political pressure by reversing course with an executive order.
“What the Americans are doing is unacceptable — and it’s not just me who has said it. All kinds of Americans, including Republicans, have said this is unacceptable,” Trudeau told a news conference marking the end of the spring legislative sitting.
“We take actions based on facts, not on fears or worries. … It seems they want to change their approach. We hope they’ll improve the system, but as far as we’re concerned, this situation cannot last.”
Before heading into a Liberal caucus meeting, Trudeau said: “What’s going on in the United States is wrong. I can’t imagine what the families who are living through this are enduring. … This is not the way we do things in Canada.”
The Trudeau government remains under fire over the Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S., which requires would-be asylum seekers to make their claims in the first “safe country” where they arrive.
The “safe country” designation no longer applies to the U.S. in light of what’s happening at the Mexico-U.S. border, the Canadian Council for Refugees argued Wednesday.
May made a similar point, asking: “Are we prepared to say the U.S. is no longer a safe third country?”
Rankin also called for the suspension of the Safe Third Country agreement, calling Trudeau’s comments “a little late and a lot inadequate.”
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said the government is monitoring changes in U.S. immigration policy and the effects they will have on asylum seekers in the U.S.
It’s too early to say whether the recent American policy changes will infringe on those rights, Hussen said.