Trudeau Government's Gross Disregard for Human Life: End All Removals Now!
- Diane Johnston -
In spite of restrictions on airline flights to
Mexico and the
Caribbean, forced quarantine of returning
travelers and repeated
appeals from the Prime Minister and other
government and public health
officials that now is not the time for
international travel, the Canada
Border Services Agency (CBSA) has stepped up
deportations since the end of
November. This ended the temporary suspension of
most deportations that
was instituted by the CBSA in March 2020.
Immigration lawyers were
advised on November 30, 2020 of the immediate
resumption of removals for all
inadmissible foreign nationals in Canada. The
announcement came on the
day that 7,681 COVID-19 infections had been
reported across the country, the highest
single-day count since the
pandemic had begun, and 98 people had died, the
highest daily death
toll in almost six months.
From March to December the CBSA claimed that it
had prioritized
deportations for reasons of "serious"
inadmissibilities, those found
under s.34 (security), s.35 (human rights
violations) and s.36
(criminality) of the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act.
The latest report on removals in the 2020-2021
fiscal year (year ending
on March 31, 2021) on the CBSA website is that
as of July 30, four
months into the fiscal year, the total number of enforced removals
was 2,438. The total
number of enforced removals in 2019-2020 was
11,465. In 2018, the CBSA
set a target of 10,000 removals for 2018-2019,
with even higher targets
for subsequent years, aiming for 15,500 by 2022,
so is
under pressure to ramp up the number of removals before the end of the fiscal year on March 31.
 The
report of the Auditor-General presented to Parliament on July 8 last
year was critical of the failure of the CBSA to increase the number of
removals and proposed various "improvements" including increased
incentives for "voluntary removals." News media report that the number
of "voluntary removals" has significantly increased. Incentives include
government-paid airfare at an often inflated price which has to be
repaid should the person who is removed want to return to Canada in the
future.
One of the reasons the CBSA has advanced for
its change in policy
was "the emergence of viable vaccination
options" despite the fact that
when it resumed removals at the end of November,
no vaccine had been
approved in Canada. It also claimed that the
decision to halt many
removals during the pandemic "was an exceptional
measure that
was not shared by the international community."
Migrants' rights organizations, the Canadian Bar
Association, the
Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and many
others have spoken out
in opposition to the resumption of removals and
called on the
government to reinstate the moratorium. They
point out the danger to
people being removed from Canada and to the CBSA
employees that
are required to travel with some people to their
destinations. People
who are under removal orders have to report,
sometimes more than once,
to CBSA offices and go into the community to
make other arrangements
for leaving Canada, all of which put them in
increased danger of
contracting COVID-19. Travel is no less
dangerous for these
individuals and the CBSA employees that
accompany them, in the
airports, in the planes and at their
destinations, than for any
Canadian who has been warned not to travel
abroad. The Canadian Bar
Association asks that the "CBSA ... adopt and
follow a clear policy
deeming all removal orders unenforceable due to
public health risks."
Undocumented workers are often reported to the
CBSA by police and
have to avoid situations in which they could
have to show
identification to police. In Quebec the curfew
imposed by the Legault
government has created an impossible situation
for many workers who are
legitimately on the streets going to their jobs
but whose lives could
be
turned upside down if police stop them.
Let us all join with migrants' rights
organizations and
advocates in calling for an end to deportations
and for an end to
unjust denials of rights of migrant workers to
permanent residence
status in Canada!
This article was published in
Number 6 - February 15, 2021
Article Link:
Trudeau Government's Gross Disregard for Human Life: End All Removals Now! - Diane Johnston
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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