With number of immigrant detainees growing, border agency explored holding them in prisons

2014/10/17 Leave a comment

Officials doing their job to find possible solutions to one of the consequences of a change in policy:

In a letter to Correctional Service commissioner Don Head, Portelance noted the border agency was assessing options for “increasing its capacity” and wanted to explore the prison service’s “expertise and facilities to hold immigration detainees.”

The border agency holds people who are considered a flight risk or a danger to the public, and those whose identities cannot be confirmed.

It has also become easier to detain newcomers. Federal changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act allow officials to hold people 16 or older who enter Canada as part of an “irregular arrival” — a group whose origins are unclear or a case where criminal human smuggling is suspected.

An internal border agency background memo notes the organization has three immigration holding centres across Canada, but relies on provincial jails in other locations to house higher-risk detainees.

“In some cases, the provinces have indicated their intention to cease holding detainees in the long-term or limit how many individuals can be held within their facilities,” the memo says.

It adds that the federal government’s “current legislative agenda concerning immigration matters and the potential for an increase in the daily detained population” make discussions with the prison service necessary.

The documents, prepared in early 2012, were recently released under the Access to Information Act.

Neither the border agency nor the prison service would make anyone available for an interview. However, in emailed answers to questions, the agencies confirmed that discussions about use of federal prisons took place.

The border agency did an internal review of options for the detention program that was presented to the organization’s executive for approval early this year, said agency spokeswoman Line Guibert-Wolff.

“As a result of this process, in February 2014, the CBSA decided that federal correctional facilities would not be used to hold immigration detainees.”

With number of immigrant detainees growing, border agency explored holding them in prisons

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Canada deports people to wars, repressive regimes | Toronto Star

2014/08/22 Leave a comment

Does appear to be some policy incoherence in deporting people to countries with a deportation moratorium:

“The prevailing human rights situation is so grave in some of these countries, the very real possibility that deportees would be at risk would be a very high one,” said Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, after viewing the statistics.

“There are countries on this list where there is widespread insecurity and armed conflict. We’ve got Somalia on the list and Syria,” Neve said. “There are other countries on this list where there are deeply entrenched patterns of widespread repression. Eritrea would be a good example. And there are countries where people who have been outside the country and are being sent back are viewed with suspicion, like North Korea.”

Neve says Amnesty International has nothing against deportations in general and points out that international law allows deportations of refugee claimants if they’ve had a fair hearing and can safely return to their country. But some of the countries people are being deported to give reason to worry.

“The government reserves the right to carry out deportations if a person has a criminal record,” said Neve. “That doesn’t mean that those deportations are in conformity with international law because there are some human rights protections that are absolute.

”Protection from torture, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution are all examples of uninfringeable human rights, Neve said.

“If you’re going to be gunned down by a death squad or if you’re going to be abducted by a secret police unit and disappear into a prison system without ever going through any kind of legal process — international law includes the protection against being deported to face that risk,” he said.

Canada deports people to wars, repressive regimes | Toronto Star.

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How much government accommodation can you expect because of religion or a disability? – Canada – CBC News

2014/08/11 Leave a comment

Good reporting and discussion on reasonable accommodation issues and practices following the recent CBSA accommodation for Hindu priests visiting Canada:

From [Karen] Busby’s [director of the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg] perspective, the situation involving the request from the Hindu priests doesn’t appear to enter into the realm of creating an undue hardship.

But she says there is a different principle that could apply in such a situation, and that is whether the accommodation made is “contrary to fundamental Canadian values.”

“That’s a trickier question I think, and its something that’s not well defined in law.”

She also suggests the airport case is somewhat similar to one that arose at York University in Toronto earlier this year.In that case, a male Muslim students request not to work with women sparked controversy.

But one element of that story that was often lost, she observes, is that “when there was a little push put on him, he said Of course I will work with women.”

There are times, she says, “when Canadian values say if youre going to be in public life, in some way, you need to be able to interact with men and women.”

Also good reporting on how Service Canada and Service Ontario accommodate religious concerns regarding head coverings and gender (largely sensibly).

How much government accommodation can you expect because of religion or a disability? – Canada – CBC News.

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CBSA allowed religious travellers to avoid female guards – Toronto – CBC News

2014/08/09 Leave a comment

I’m with the staff on this. Bad call by the managers:

Canada Border Services Agency managers at Toronto’s Pearson airport allowed a small group of Hindu priests to avoid screening by female border guards to comply with their religious beliefs, CBC News has learned.

A CBSA officer, outraged that such a request would be considered, spoke exclusively to CBC News about what happened at Pearson’s Terminal 3 on the evening of Monday, July 28. Fearing she could be disciplined for speaking out, the officer spoke on the condition that her name and identity be withheld.

The officer said she and her colleagues — whose job involves screening passengers for entry into Canada after they arrive on international flights — were told before their shift not to switch work stations with other officers without first asking a supervisor.

“The reason given was that there were five individuals coming in who had requested only to be served by male officers,” said the CBSA officer in an exclusive interview with CBCs Nil Koksal.

The five male travellers who made the request to CBSA are Hindu priests, called sadhus. Sadhus follow a strict lifestyle that requires them to avoid any contact with women.

And a reminder that these kinds of issues are not unique to any one religion.

CBSA allowed religious travellers to avoid female guards – Toronto – CBC News.

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Canada’s immigration enforcement system suffers from ‘orchestrated mismanagement,’ whistleblower claims

2014/07/12 Leave a comment

Interesting read. Despite the Government’s efforts and messaging, deportations and removals have declined.

And yet, in the Toronto region, about 3,000 fewer deportations took place in the last fiscal year over the previous year, a drop of about 34%, he says. Nationally, there were about 5,000 fewer deportations, down about 26%. That follows year-after-year increases in deportations since the 2008-09 fiscal year, he says.

CBSA had projected removing 17,075 people nationally in the last fiscal year but only managed to remove 13,900 and is the first time in perhaps a decade CBSA’s target was missed, the letter says.

As to his allegations of “organizational mismanagement,” hard to comment without having a full picture. And performance pay reflects the range of responsibilities of senior executives, not just one file (unless it is one of those files that contaminates all those it touches!).

Canada’s immigration enforcement system suffers from ‘orchestrated mismanagement,’ whistleblower claims | National Post.

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