C-2 – The Strong Borders Act – introduces some significant new powers around how we manage our borders. It’s split into 16 parts, and today we’re looking at Parts 6 to 9.
You can find Parts 1 to 5 here, 10 to 12 here, and 13 to 16 here.
Part 6 – Information Sharing — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Part 6 makes changes to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to share someone’s personal information with other government agencies. Right now they can only share biometric data. (Fingerprints and photos). Under C-2 they’ll be allowed to share any personal information to any government agency, federal or provincial, as well as Crown Corporations. It’s worth noting that the information that can be shared needs to relate to:
- Someone’s identity and any changes to their identity
- Someone’s status and any changes to their status
- Any documents or the status of any documents issued by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Finally, any government agency will be able to share any of that information with a foreign entity. The only condition here is that the Minister needs to sign off on it.
Part 7 – Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (In-Canada Asylum System)
Part 7’s a long one with a whole lot of text that I’m not entirely sure what it does, so feel free to correct me on this one. It makes a lot of changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, starting with removing the ability to make a refugee claim outside of a port of entry.
The bulk of Part 7 seems to be funneling all refugee claims through the Ministry before they get to proceed. For example, previously claims would be assessed by an officer. If the officer believes the claim could be valid, they’ll refer it to the Immigration and Refugee Board and they’ll handle it from there. Under C-2 the officer will instead refer the claim to the Minister, and if the Minister approves it it’ll be sent to the Board. Worth noting here that the Board is an independent body, so putting the Minister between them and all new claims is going to politicize the refugee program. A big thing here is that the Minister will have the ability to set the time limits for an applicant to submit documents and attend hearings, and will have the ability to start the process of declaring a claim to be abandoned or withdrawn based on these time limits.
Part 7 also ends the Designated Country of Origin program. This was put in place back in 2012 by Stephen Harper to fast-track refugee claims from countries that were deemed “safe” and to make it easier to deport people whose claims were rejected. This includes things like not allowing appeals of the decision to reject a refugee claim. The goal was to reduce abuse of the refugee program and free up resources to process valid claims. It sounds like this didn’t really happen, and the courts eventually ruled this was a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 2019 Justin Trudeau stopped using this program, so this bit of C-2 is just a bit of legislative clean-up.
Part 8 – Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Certain Measures in Respect of Applications and Documents)
Decent bit here but the general idea is Part 8 will allow the Minister to suspend or cancel any visas or permits to be in the country if they decide it’s in the public interest. They’ll also be able to end any applications for these visas or permits. This includes work permits, temporary resident visas, permanent residency cards, and study permits. Basically if you aren’t a citizen the government will have the ability to simply declare you can’t be here anymore.
Part 9 – Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Ineligibility)
Easy one here, Part 9 adds two new situations where someone won’t be able to make a refugee claim if they entered the country after June 24, 2020. The first is anyone who entered and waited more than a year before making their claim. The second is anyone who didn’t enter through a port of entry. In both cases people will be deemed ineligible to apply for refugee status and their applications will be denied.
Progress of C-2
C-2 is currently waiting for its Second Reading vote.
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