Canada back in court defending pact with U.S. to turn back
asylum-seekers
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[February 23, 2021]
By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian government
will be back in court on Tuesday defending its agreement with the United
States to turn back asylum-seekers in an effort to overturn a federal
court decision that found the pact violated Canada's Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
A victory for the government would mean asylum-seekers would continue to
be turned back at the Canadian border under conditions a court found
violated their rights. A loss would force Ottawa to rethink refugee
management at the world's longest undefended border.
Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, signed in 2002, asylum-seekers
trying to enter one country through a land border crossing are turned
back on the basis they should make their claim in the first safe country
in which they arrived.
Last year, a Canadian federal judge found the treaty violates
individuals' right to life, liberty and the security of the person in
part because of the likelihood people turned back to the United States
would be detained, and also due to the conditions under which they would
be detained.
In its written submission ahead of Tuesday's hearing, the Canadian
government argued the federal court failed to take into account not only
U.S. safeguards of people subject to detention but Canada's monitoring
of U.S. detention practices.
The laws in question do not require Canadian officials to turn back
individuals in circumstances that would "shock the conscience" of
Canadians, the submission reads.
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Three families that claimed to be from Burundi walk down Roxham Road
to cross into Quebec at the US-Canada border in Champlain, New York,
August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo
The Canadian government has indicated it wants to expand the
agreement to cover the whole border, not just formal ports of entry.
During former U.S. President Donald Trump's term in office, tens of
thousands of asylum seekers crossed the Canada-U.S. border in
between formal border crossings to skirt the agreement.
President Joe Biden has pursued a more immigrant-friendly agenda in
his first weeks in office. But Canada cannot use that to argue for
the United States as a safe country because an appeal has to deal
with what is already on the record.
The argument defending U.S. immigration detention "flies in the face
of [Canada's] public persona as a refugee-welcoming country that
purports to support humanitarian endeavours around the world," said
Jamie Chai Yun Liew, a law professor at the University of Ottawa
with a focus on immigration law.
And problematic U.S. practices were not specific to Trump, Liew
said.
Hearings are scheduled to take place in the Federal Court of Appeal
on Tuesday and Wednesday.
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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