Keep the promise
Toronto made history two years ago by declaring itself the first “sanctuary city” in Canada. Under the new policy, undocumented immigrants had the same right to municipal services such as public health, parks and recreation programs, social assistance, community housing, women’s shelters and libraries as any other resident. Council approved the designation overwhelmingly — 37 to 3 — and instructed city managers to train front-line staff not to turn people who feared deportation or detention over to Canada Border Services.
It was an audacious move. It defied the federal government’s drive to deport “bogus refugees,” deny asylum seekers access to medical care and crack down on illegal workers. But other cities followed Toronto’s example. Hamilton became a “sanctuary city” last year. Vancouver followed six months later.
Now local politicians are confronting a gap in the protection they meant to offer vulnerable Torontonians. The police don’t tell the city council what information they are passing on to border authorities.
This leaves the city’s 80,000 to 200,000 undocumented immigrants living in fear, looking over their shoulders, refusing any contact with police and afraid to apply for municipal services. This defeats the whole purpose of being a safe haven.
The police are legally required to enforce the law. They have to ascertain the identity of any person they arrest. They have to disclose the immigration status of anyone charged with a crime or a violation of civil or property law.
But they can protect the identity of victims of crime, witnesses and bystanders. They are under no obligation to accompany border enforcement agents on raids to pull undocumented immigrants out of schools, churches or workplaces. It is not their job to enforce federal immigration policy.
City councillors aren’t seeking to cut off communication between Toronto police and Canada Border Services. All they are asking is that police inform the city about how much co-operation is going on; how much they’re telling federal authorities about the thousands of people living and working in Toronto without landed immigrant status; and what criteria they apply when asked to assist border enforcement agents.
Councillor Joe Mihevc, who was instrumental in getting Toronto to join the 36 American municipalities that had already declared themselves sanctuary cities, put forward last week’s motion at the community and recreation committee of city council. It passed unanimously.
There’s no guarantee that the police will respond positively. But the issue is now on the municipal agenda and in the public eye. As Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam pointed out, the city’s principles amount to “hollow words” if its police ignore the spirit of the policy.