As a result, seven provinces have now violated their respective agreements with the CBSA to be paid to detain foreign nationals detained under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
That’s great news, responded Montreal immigration attorney Chantal Ianniciello, who represents many immigration detainees. It’s not a suitable place for them. In her opinion, being cut off from the world and imprisoned with criminals caused great psychological distress for migrants.
Immigration attorney Chantal Ianniciello, who represents migrants, is pleased that Quebec is following in the footsteps of other provinces and is terminating its agreement with the CBSA.
Photo: Radio Canada / Olivier Plante
Border guards can arrest migrants if they believe their identity is false, they pose a threat to society or they pose a risk of absconding. According to the CBSA’s own statements, the vast majority are detained for the latter reason, ie because the agency assumes they will not appear for an immigration procedure, such as deportation.
The CBSA may decide to send them to one of their three immigration centers or to provincial prisons pending the conclusion of their case.
The Immigration Holding Center in Laval is one of three detention centers administered by the CBSA. The other two are in Toronto and Surrey, British Columbia.
Photo: Radio Canada / Olivier Plante
The detention of migrants in prisons has been strongly denounced by many human rights organizations and immigration advocates, who say the practice violates international law.
About 2,000 of the approximately 8,000 migrants the CBSA arrested on average each year between 2015 and 2020 were taken to the province’s correctional facilities. While the number of immigrant detainees fell to around 3,000 in FY2021-2022, nearly a quarter were still held in provincial prisons.
Detainees are sent to other provinces
By terminating their agreement with the federal government, Quebec and New Brunswick are following in the footsteps of five other provinces: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
In order to terminate their contract, provinces must give the CBSA one year’s notice of termination.
Headingley Correctional Center in Manitoba, where migrants were being held on administrative grounds. Manitoba was the fourth province to terminate its agreement with the CBSA. (archive photo)
Photo: (Travis Golby/CBC)
The Alberta Agreement will expire first on June 30, 2023, followed by the British Columbia Agreement in late July and the Nova Scotia Agreement in early August.
However, a few weeks before these contracts expire, the federal agency reiterates that it has still not decided what to do with these inmates.
In this context, the CBSA is looking for safe solutions for housing high-risk detainees, a spokesman for the agency wrote to questions from Radio-Canada. At the same time, the agency has systematically reduced the use of provincial correctional facilities. As of June 1, 2023, 104 immigrant detainees are being held at a provincial correctional facility, the CBSA said.
While Halifax Refugee Clinic executive director Julie Chamagne welcomes the growing list of provinces ending migrant detention, she is deeply concerned about the lack of a contingency plan for the federal government.
Julie Chamagne, executive director of the Halifax Refugee Clinic, says she’s concerned about the lack of a supportive federal plan if the provinces cancel their agreements.
Photo: Radio Canada / Robert Short
According to her, since Nova Scotia’s decision to terminate the agreement with the agency, immigrant detainees have been transferred to prisons in other provinces, such as New Brunswick. It removes people from their loved ones, their community and their legal advice, Ms Chamagne denounced. Instead, she advocates for alternatives in the community.
The CBSA claims that the most serious cases remain mostly in provincial prisons. Over 73% of those incarcerated in provincial correctional facilities are not admitted for serious crimes. This means the person has been convicted of a criminal offense in Canada or abroad, such as a sex offense, an act of violence, or trafficking in weapons or drugs, which carries a prison sentence of more than 6 months and a maximum of 10 years, she says .
The CBSA uses the term “serious crime” as a catch-all and intimidating tool, Me Ianniciello replies. If some migrants have committed crimes in the past, they are often mistakes made by young people or crimes that do not pose a threat to society.
She recalls that the CBSA has just built a brand new immigration camp in Laval that could hold migrants, which the CBSA considers to be the most serious cases.
Ontario in reflection
The Quebec Ministry of Public Safety told Radio-Canada that it informed the CBSA last December of the decision to terminate its agreement. The deadline for ending the detention of immigrant detainees in their prisons has therefore been set for December 31, 2023.
As for New Brunswick, effective February 28, 2024, the province will stop detaining migrants for immigration purposes.
The government of Ontario, the province where the CBSA detains most migrants, says it is currently reviewing its agreement with the agency but has not yet announced a final decision.