Ontario extends contract to detain migrants for another year

Ontario will continue jailing aliens held for immigration purposes despite promising to end the practice, Radio-Canada has learned.

Human rights activists and immigration lawyers have been campaigning for years against the detention of migrants in Canada, which they say violates international law.

They believed their efforts had paid off when all ten provinces agreed starting in 2022 that they would no longer detain migrants on behalf of the federal government and gave the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) a year’s notice as required by some of their contracts.

We find it really problematic that Ontario is extending its agreement with the federal government for many months.– Stéphanie Valois, Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association

But Ontario, the province with the most immigration detainees each year, continues to push back the deadline.

After initially announcing it would stop detaining migrants starting June 15, Premier Doug Ford’s government agreed to extend its contract with the federal government until July 31.

According to information from Radio-Canada, it has now decided to maintain the controversial practice for another year.

“Following a request from the federal government, Ontario has granted an extension until September 2025 to allow the federal government more time to modernize the necessary infrastructure to hold immigration detainees,” confirmed Brent Ross, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General of Ontario.

‘It’s really disappointing’

“It’s really disappointing,” said lawyer Stéphanie Valois, co-chair of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers.

“We said that detaining migrants was against international standards, that it had serious consequences for the mental health of migrants, and this was recognized by the provinces as we saw them terminating their agreements one after another,” she said.

“We find it really problematic that Ontario is extending its agreement with the federal government for many months.”

Quebec has decided not to renew its contract with the federal government, despite talks in June between Prime Minister François Legault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about extending the agreement.

All but one of the other provinces confirmed to Radio-Canada that they have terminated their agreements.

Newfoundland and Labrador, which became the latest country to announce its intention to stop detaining immigration detainees, plans to end the practice completely by March 31, 2025.

The government is turning to prisons

In response to the province’s decision, the Trudeau government has opted to use federal prisons to hold migrants it considers “high risk.”

The proposal, which was hidden in the federal budget in April, drew angry reactions from former Liberal ministers Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock, both at the World Refugee and Migration Council.

However, despite strong opposition, the federal government is moving forward.

CBSA announced that the regional reception center in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, about 50 kilometers north of Montreal, has been designated as a reception center for immigration detainees starting next year.

The prison has housed some of Canada’s most notorious criminals, including serial child killer Clifford Olson and Hells Angels Quebec boss Maurice “Mom” Boucher.

“The area under investigation will be separate from any federal inmates and will have approximately 25 beds,” CBSA said in a news release earlier this month. “This location would only be used to detain adult males who pose a significant risk to public safety.”

Treated like criminals

Immigration detention is administrative in nature, but immigration detainees who end up behind bars are subject to the same treatment as convicted criminals, Valois said.

“They are handcuffed, subject to strict routines and have great difficulty in contacting the outside world, including their lawyers.”

Under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, CBSA can detain foreign nationals and permanent residents for three main reasons:

• If their identity has not been established well enough.
• If they are considered a danger to the public.
• If they are considered a flight risk, meaning the agency believes they will not appear for immigration processes, including removal.

Since 2012, CBSA has detained an average of 6,410 migrants per year, the vast majority due to flight risk.

The agency could choose to send them to one of three immigration centers, or to county jails across the country if the agreements with those counties remained in effect. An average of 1,784 migrants were imprisoned annually.

CBSA said as of September 13, there were only 21 immigration detainees in provincial jails.

Valois said she is pleased that CBSA is placing more priority on alternatives such as community supervision and the use of securities, but she worries that progress will be lost if the federal agency starts using correctional facilities. CBSA has “sole prerogative” over where immigration detainees are held, she said.

Red Cross reports not available

The Canadian Red Cross is the only non-governmental organization that regularly visits immigration centers and provincial jails to report on the conditions of migrants held there.

In 2017, when the contract between the Red Cross and CBSA was expanded to allow for a greater number of monitoring visits, the federal agency committed to publishing the organization’s annual reports. However, that has not happened in the past three years.

In the past, Red Cross reports have highlighted concerns about immigration detainees and convicted criminals being kept together, including punitive measures such as strip searches and lockdowns.

The Red Cross has confirmed it has submitted its last three annual reports to CBSA.

“If the agency has nothing to hide, why shouldn’t we have access to these reports?” Valois asked.

In response to questions from Radio-Canada, CBSA said it plans to publish two of the three most recent Red Cross annual reports this fall.