The federal government introduced new legislation Tuesday that aims to both strengthen and streamline the immigration process, including new limits on asylum claims, while also cracking down on cross-border fentanyl trafficking.
The proposed bill addresses not only several of the border security priorities highlighted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, but also some of the long-standing complaints voiced by U.S. lawmakers, diplomats and Canadian police organizations.
“This new legislation will ensure Canada has the right tools to keep our border secure, combat transnational organized crime and fentanyl, and disrupt illicit financing,” Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told reporters in Ottawa after tabling the legislation.
The minister said he planned to brief U.S. border czar Tom Homan on the new legislation in a meeting later Tuesday, and acknowledged it addresses some issues that have been “irritants for the U.S.”
He added it will likely play into ongoing negotiations with the Trump administration on a new security relationship that Carney has been pursuing.
“It’s not exclusively about the United States,” Anandasangaree said.
“This is about delivering a win for Canada and ensuring that our borders are safer, our communities are safer, and of course we’re responding to some of the concerns that have been posed by the White House.”
Anandasangaree said the new bill, dubbed the Strong Borders Act, builds upon the $1.3-billion border security package announced last December that saw the appointment of a fentanyl czar and new equipment for the RCMP at the border, among other measures.
No new funding is attached to the bill.
What would the bill do?
Under the proposed legislation, anyone who makes an asylum claim more than a year after arriving in Canada would not see their claim referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Those entering Canada across the U.S. land border under the Safe Third Country Agreement will have just 14 days to make an asylum claim in order to be considered.
Claimants who apply beyond those deadlines will still be subject to a pre-removal risk assessment to determine if their safety will be at risk if returned to their home country, which Anandasangaree called an “important safeguard.”
The new rules address a growing issue of international students and other temporary visa holders claiming asylum after their visas expire in order to stay in Canada. Federal immigration data obtained by Global News suggests such claims will continue to rise this year.
The new bill would also “improve and modernize” the existing asylum system by simplifying the application process, speeding up both referrals and removal orders, and removing inactive cases from the system. Claims will only be decided on while a person is physically present in Canada.
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It also gives the government the power to outright suspend new applications and the processing of existing claims “for matters of public health and national security,” and improve information sharing of immigration documents and information among different levels of government and law enforcement.
One provision in the bill, to allow the RCMP to share sex offender data with law enforcement partners in the U.S. and other domestic and international partners, answers a long-standing request for cross-border cooperation on sex trafficking investigations that dates back to the Biden administration.
As for fentanyl, the government aims to make precursor chemicals used to produce the illicit opioid controlled substances, which would allow greater federal oversight of those shipments.
Ports of entry, transporters and warehouse operators will be required to allow Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials to conduct export inspections, matching existing requirements for import inspections.
The bill would also give the Canadian Coast Guard expanded powers to conduct security patrols and collect and share information for security purposes, but does not restore the port policing system that was eliminated in the 1990s.
Police and Canada Post inspectors will also be able to search mail in approved cases under the proposed legislation.
Former CBSA officials have long called for expanded search powers at entry points and international trade ports, noting less than one per cent of goods entering Canada are searched.
Expanded police powers
The bill aims to strengthen police, border service and intelligence agency powers to access information and data, including requiring Canadian electronic service providers to comply with requests to access or intercept communications and other information.
Some information could be accessed without a warrant in “urgent, time-sensitive circumstances,” the government said in a background document that gave the example of cases involving the ongoing abuse of a child.
“If there is an active event happening … that involves the safety and security of someone, law enforcement can intervene at that point and seek and demand production of information,” Anandasangaree said.
“But in the absence of that, there is a judicial process by which they need to go and seek the warrants and the production orders required for them to continue the investigation. These are some of the very important safeguards that are being built in.”
Anandasangaree said he was confident the bill won’t violate Canadians’ charter rights to privacy and due process.
“In order for me to bring forward legislation, it needed to have the safeguards in place, it needed to be in line with the values of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” he said.
“I fundamentally believe that we have (struck) the balance while expanding powers in certain instances, it does have the safeguards and the protections in place to protect individual freedoms and rights.”
Bill receives criticism
The Migrant Rights Network said in a statement the proposed measures would “drastically restrict refugee protections and allow for mass deportations and immigration exclusion.”
“Prime Minister Carney campaigned on being different from Donald Trump, yet his very first bill is a shameful capitulation to racism and xenophobia, which abandons Canada’s legal and moral obligations to refugees and migrants,” spokesperson Syed Hussan said.
“This bill is immoral, it’s illegal, and it will be stopped.”
NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan took particular issue with the proposed government powers to suspend immigration applications and enhanced information sharing, which she called “alarming,” as well as the lack of a clear appeals process.
“They’re putting in all kinds of limitations, really trying to effectively prevent people from accessing asylum claims here in Canada,” she told reporters in Ottawa.
“Canada may as well just say to the international community, ‘We no longer support asylum seekers.’ They may as well just be honest about that.”
The Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment from Global News.
In a social media post Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre cited a recent OECD report that said recent high levels of immigration had strained Canada’s housing market and economic outlook.
Chantal Desloges, an immigration lawyer based in Toronto, told Global News the proposed legislation will do little to reduce backlogs in the immigration system and will just move the “headache” of reviewing claims from the Immigration and Refugee Board to the immigration minister’s office.
“They’re not actually reducing a real backlog, and the steps that they are taking are going to be at the expense of fairness to refugee claimants,” she said.
She added it’s unclear how the government can suspend or cancel immigration applications broadly.
“That’s a little bit disturbing, particularly when you don’t know what it actually means,” she said.
—With files from Global’s Touria Izri
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