“We cannot let the politics of fear undermine the Canadian commitment to protect the rights and freedoms of those fleeing persecution who come to our shores,” added Mr. Ignatieff.
Instead of focusing on catching or punishing human smugglers, Bill C-49 gives the Immigration Minister broad new discretionary powers to designate arrivals of two or more refugees, by boat or otherwise, as irregular arrivals. These irregular arrivals – including women and children – would be subject to mandatory detention for a year without review, and denied procedural guarantees at the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), as well as restrictions on permanent residence, travel and family reunification even after they have been granted refugee status.
“This legislation breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our obligations under the Refugee Convention and related international instruments,” said Irwin Cotler, Liberal Human Rights Critic. “The legislation does not so much sanction smuggling as it victimizes the very asylum seekers the law should be protecting.”
“The Conservatives took advantage of the arrival of two boats carrying refugee applicants to divide Canadians and are now referring to immigrants and refugees interchangeably to mislead Canadians about two distinct processes,” said Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Critic Justin Trudeau.
“Less than six months after all parties agreed to streamline our refugee system, they are now using human smuggling as a cover for punitive measures that allow the Minister to create two classes of refugees on a whim and subsequently deny refugee applicants procedural protections and impose draconian restrictions on legitimate refugees.”
The Liberal Party supports effective measures that would catch and punish human smugglers and prevent boats from transporting desperate people in an unsafe way. The Liberal Party also believes that economic migrants who are not actual refugees fleeing persecution must not be permitted to jump the queue, but instead must follow existing immigration procedures and wait to be processed in turn.
“Missing from this bill are effective measures that target those who profit from human suffering,” said Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland. “We’re looking for stronger provisions for the crews of these smuggling boats, stronger seizure provisions for the smugglers’ assets, and greater resources for law enforcement efforts to pursue these criminals abroad – none of which are in Bill C-49.”
Background
All parties in Parliament supported legislation that streamlined the refugee determination process, after amendment, last June.
Bill C-49 was introduced last month by the Conservative government in response to the arrival of the cargo ship Sun Sea last summer carrying 492 refugee claimants.
While sold to the public as their answer to the broader problem of human smuggling, most of Bill C-49 is targeted at refugee determination and places draconian restrictions on refugees even after they have been determined to be legitimately fleeing persecution.
The weight of expert opinion has argued the mandatory detention provisions in Bill C-49 violate sections 9 and 10 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Article 31 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the “Convention”). Furthermore, the five-year refugee probationary period, denial of family reunification and of travel documents to refugees after their determination also likely violates both the Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
