End this injustice

If ever there was a case that underscored the fact that Canada must end the practice of indefinite detention of migrants, it’s that of Ebrahim Toure.

By now readers will be familiar with his disturbing story. The failed refugee claimant has been languishing in detention for more than five years — even though he hasn’t been charged or convicted of a crime — because immigration authorities can’t figure out what to do with him.

They want to deport him to Gambia, but that country won’t accept him without identity documents, which he claims not to have.

So faced with this catch-22, Canada is keeping him in an Immigration Holding Centre at a cost of more than $90,000 a year.

This is not only indefensible on moral grounds, it is contrary to explicit directions given by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale that the detention of migrants should be a “last resort.” He even set aside $5 million in 2016 to be spent on alternatives to it, such as electronic monitoring devices for those considered a flight risk.

Still, on Wednesday government lawyers stubbornly continued to argue in court for Toure’s ongoing detention, though he poses no public threat.

Why they would do so in light of Goodale’s directive remains a cruel riddle.

More to the point, though a federal court ruled last year that the indefinite jailing of immigration detainees does not necessarily violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is still unacceptable in any democracy.

Indeed, Canada is one of a shrinking number of democratic nations that imposes no time limit on how long migrants can be detained.

Most countries in the European Union, for example, have set an 18-month limit on immigration detention, while others have a limit of as little as three months.

To be fair, the number of migrants being detained by Canadian authorities has declined dramatically since the Liberal government was elected. In 2013-14, for example, Canada detained 10,088 immigrants. By the last fiscal year it was 6,251. And on average they spend only 23 days in detention.

Still, Toure is far from the only example of a migrant who poses no danger to the public being held for years.

It’s long past time that the Trudeau government followed in the steps of other democracies and set a hard limit on how long migrants can be detained.

In the meantime, it should release Toure without delay.

It’s long past time that the Trudeau government set a hard limit on how long migrants can be detained