CBC Edition

Federal government plans on incarcerat­ing migrants in its penitentia­ries

- Brigitte Bureau

The Trudeau government wants to use federal pris‐ ons to detain migrants deemed "high-risk," ac‐ cording to a line buried in the federal budget tabled on Tuesday.

The statement, at the bot‐ tom of the financial docu‐ ment, has angered human rights organizati­ons.

"The government pro‐ poses to introduce amend‐ ments to the Correction­s and Conditiona­l Release Act and the Immigratio­n and Refugee Protection Act to enable the use of federal correction­al fa‐ cilities for the purpose of high-risk immigratio­n deten‐ tion," reads Annex 3 on page 409 of the federal budget.

"I felt a big sense of be‐ trayal," said Lloyd Axworthy, chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council.

"We think it is inconsiste­nt with basic Canadian values and the betrayal of the no‐ tion of our country as a na‐ tion of refuge," said Allan Rock, also a member of that organizati­on.

Both say incarcerat­ing people for immigratio­n pur‐ poses violates their funda‐ mental human rights and in‐ ternationa­l law.

World Refugee & Migra‐ tion Council is one of the groups that campaigned alongside Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Interna‐ tional to convince provinces to end their immigratio­n de‐ tention agreements with the federal government.

The federal government's plan to now use its peniten‐ tiaries - that house people who have committed the worst crimes - is "completely unacceptab­le," says Rock.

"They've gone to the kind of nuclear alternativ­e," ad‐ ded Axworthy.

The two former federal Liberal ministers believe the Trudeau government's pro‐ posal does not align with Lib‐ eral values and say they will do everything they possibly can to stop it.

The offices of Immigratio­n Minister Marc Miller and Pub‐ lic Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc would not comment.

Radio-Canada's questions were transferre­d to the De‐ partment of Finances, as the ministry responsibl­e for the budget. That department did not provide comments be‐ fore deadline.

Under the Immigratio­n and Refugee Protection Act, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) can detain for‐ eign nationals, including refugee claimants, if they're considered a flight risk, their identities aren't well-estab‐ lished or if they pose a dan‐ ger to the public.

The vast majority of the 71,988 migrants detained by CBSA between 2012 and 2023 were deemed to be flight risks, meaning the bor‐ der agency believed they would not appear for immi‐ gration processes, such as a removal.

The CBSA would then de‐ cide whether to lock them up in one of its three federal im‐ migration holding centres in Toronto, Laval, Que., or Sur‐ rey, B.C., or in a provincial jail.

The fact that the federal government statement is re‐ ferring to just "high-risk" im‐ migration detainees does not reassure Rock.

"The public safety and public security dimension has been exaggerate­d by the Canada Border Services Agency from the outset," Rock said.

"And by the way, if there is a concern about public safety, there are federal hold‐ ing facilities which can ac‐ commodate up to almost 500 people now between British Columbia, Quebec and On‐ tario, and those are, in essence, medium security jails."

Over the years, migrants have been sent to provincial correction­al facilities when there was no federal centre in the province where they were detained, when they were considered high-risk or when they suffered mental health issues.

But since 2022, all provinces have one after an‐ other either refused to im‐ prison people held for immi‐ gration-related purposes or have committed to stop doing so.

Many provinces had signed formal contracts with CBSA under which they had to give the agency one year's notice of cancellati­ons.

Recently CBSA said that now it only detains migrants in jails - in provinces where that measure still exists when there are "serious con‐ cerns about danger to the public, or to other detainees, or staff."

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