NUMBERS ‘LOWER THAN ANTICIPATED’
The CBSA can hold foreign nationals and permanent residents involved in immigration proceedings in detention if they’re deemed a flight risk, a danger to the public, or if their identity cannot be confirmed. They can also be detained if they’re inadmissible to Canada due to criminal activity, pending their removal from the country.
Under the expanded alternatives to detention program, people can be released into the community with different levels of monitoring, ranging from mandatory residency programs and community supervision, to GPS monitoring and telephone voice reporting. While some of these programs were previously available in the Greater Toronto Area, most have now been expanded across the country.
As of June 30, about 2,000 people were registered for voice reporting, according to numbers provided by the CBSA. The program takes a voice print of each individual, who must then call in at regular intervals. Another 336 people were enrolled in community supervision or mandatory residency programs.
“The Canada Border Services
Agency (CBSA) has made significant progress in securing the release of individuals who would otherwise have had no viable alternatives, while ensuring public safety,” the agency told the National Post in an email.
A government backgrounder published in July 2018 listed a maximum capacity of 10,000 people for the voice reporting program and 800 for community supervision over a full year. Internal documents obtained by the Post show there were 989 enrolments in voice reporting in the first eight months of the program — through February 2019 — and about 130 in community supervision.
According to internal reports, fewer people than expected were enrolled during the first several months of the GPS monitoring program, a pilot project launched only in the GTA, in part due to housing issues. As of Jan. 31, only seven people were being monitored with ankle bracelets, though the agency expected to enrol up to 40 people throughout the pilot. “Numbers are lower than anticipated due to many individuals not having a viable bondsperson and/or acceptable housing,” reads an internal status report. “Service providers delivering … programming do not have the permanent housing needed in order to set up the radio frequency device for monitoring curfews.”
The CBSA told the Post 14 people were fitted with ankle bracelets as of June 30, and that 23 people have been enrolled in the program since the start.
A report from December 2018 also shows that one person wearing an ankle bracelet “absconded,” though all details are redacted. The agency told the Post that “All breaches related to the … program were addressed in a timely manner and resolved.”
Jenny Jeanes, program coordinator with Action Réfugiés Montréal, an organization that advocates for refugees, said the new programs have been slow to ramp up. “It feels like it’s affecting a relatively low number of people,” she said. “And so it’s probably positive for the people who are accessing the program, but it’s fairly exceptional and low numbers.”
Jeanes said housing availability is a key issue facing the organizations that provide community supervision. The CBSA hired the Toronto Bail Program, the Salvation Army and the John Howard Society to provide services to people released into the community, which can include referrals for housing and employment support. But the latter two organizations weren’t previously involved with alternatives to detention and are getting their programs set up for the first time. “Somebody needs a place to live to get out of detention,” Jeanes said. “I think that’s been a challenge for them.”
John Poletek, executive director of the Salvation Army’s correctional and justice services in Toronto, said he feels the program is going well, but that “things will move a little bit quicker” once the organization has more experience. The Salvation Army currently has four beds in Toronto for people released into a mandatory residency program — many need support for mental health or substance abuse issues. If they do well, they can be released into the community with supervision.
“It’s been moving fairly slowly but diligently,” Poletek said. “We’re very focused on community safety.”
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said there were technical difficulties with the voice reporting technology early on that may have delayed enrolment. But she said her biggest concern is that the ATD program is based on a criminal bail model, though many of the people in immigration detention have committed no crime. “I guess it’s hard for us to be overly optimistic about how it’s going to succeed” based on that model, she said.
More people were detained in 2018-19 than during the preceding year — 8,781 compared to 8,355 — but the average length of detention declined slightly from 14.3 to 13.8 days. The number of children in detention dropped from 151 to 118.