Quebec, New Brunswick become latest provinces to stop imprisoning migrants | CBC News

The governments of Quebec and New Brunswick have told the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) they will stop incarcerating migrants detained for administrative reasons, Radio-Canada/CBC has confirmed.

Seven provinces have now cancelled their contracts with CBSA under which they were paid to imprison foreign nationals detained under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

“It is excellent news,” said Montreal immigration lawyer Chantal Ianniciello, who represents many detained migrants. “It is not a place suited to their needs”.

Ianniciello said when migrants are cut off from the world and put in jail alongside criminals it creates “a lot of psychological stress.”

CBSA can detain migrants if it considers their identity is not clearly established, they are a danger to the public or they represent a flight risk. According to its own statistics, most are detained for the latter reason, meaning the border agency believes they will not appear for immigration processes such as a removal.

CBSA can hold detainees in one of its three immigration holding centres or in provincial jails.

The detention of migrants in correctional facilities has been strongly denounced by many human rights organizations and immigration lawyers who say the practice is contrary to international law.

Between 2015 and 2020, roughly a quarter of the 8,000 migrants detained on average each year by CBSA were sent to provincial jails. 

By the fiscal year of 2021-2022, the number of immigration detainees had fallen to about 3,000, but close to a quarter of them were still kept in provincial jails.

Detainees sent to other provinces

By ending their agreement with the federal government, Quebec and New Brunswick now fall in line with five other provinces: B.C., Nova Scotia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

To rescind their contract, provinces must generally give a one-year advance notice to CBSA.

The agreement with Alberta will be terminated on June 30, followed by B.C. at the end of July and Nova Scotia at the beginning of August.

With only a few weeks to go before these deadlines, CBSA says it still has not decided what will happen to the immigration detainees currently held in those provincial jails.

“In this context, CBSA is looking for safe and secure solutions to house high-risk detainees,” the border agency said to Radio-Canada in a French written statement.

“At the same time, [CBSA] has systematically reduced the use of provincial correctional facilities.”

The agency said, as of June 1, there were a total of 104 immigration detainees held in a provincial correctional facility.

There needs to be a national plan to change the detention strategy, according to Julie Chamagne, executive director of the Halifax Refugee Clinic.

Chamagne said she is “very concerned” about CBSA’s lack of plan regarding what will happen to the detainees once agreements with the provinces come to an end.

She also said the agency should adopt alternatives to detention, which would allow people to be released into the community.

Since Nova Scotia decided to cancel its agreement with CBSA, immigration detainees have been sent to provincial jails in other provinces, such as New Brunswick, she said.

“It takes people further away from their loved ones, their community and their legal counsel,” said Chamagne.

CBSA said about three of every four immigration detainees still in provincial jails are inadmissible because they have been convicted of an offence, inside or outside Canada. Examples include offences of a sexual nature, an act of violence or arms or drug trafficking, which are punishable by anywhere from six months to 10 years.

“CBSA uses the term ‘serious crime’ as a catch-all and uses it to create fear,” said Ianniciello.

She said there are many cases where these prior convictions happened when the migrant was young, or crimes do not pose a threat to society.

Ontario says it’s reviewing contract

CBSA has also opened a brand new Immigration Holding Centre in Laval, Que., that could be used to detain migrants CBSA considers to be the most serious cases, she added.

Quebec’s public security ministry told Radio-Canada that it informed CBSA the province would end its agreement last December. The deadline to stop imprisoning immigration detainees in its provincial jails will be Dec. 31, 2023.

New Brunswick will stop incarcerating migrants in its jails starting Feb. 28, 2024.

Ontario, the province with the most CBSA immigration detainees, said it is now “reviewing” its agreement with the border agency, but a decision has not been made.