Public Safety / Bill C-2

Canadian Press: House of Commons set to rise for six-week holiday break

Just before the House rose, MPs passed two pieces of legislation -- C-4 and C-12 -- which will now head to the Senate for consideration there.

Bill C-4 amends marginal personal income tax rates, eliminates the consumer carbon price and implements a temporary GST rebate for first-time homebuyers. The carbon price has been set to zero since April but this bill eliminates it through legislation.

Bill C-12, a revised version of a border bill, introduces new measures to help the Canada Border Services Agency tackle drug and gun smuggling and auto theft, as well as controversial changes to Canada’s refugee and asylum seeker regimes.

On Tuesday, NDP MPs Leah Gazan and Jenny Kwan joined with refugee and human rights advocates to implore the government not to pass the legislation. They called the legislation an attack on vulnerable people that will do little to make our borders safer but will fuel racism.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/house-of-commons-set-to-rise-for-six-week-holiday-break/

HANSARD: Speech and debate against Bill C-12

Click below to read the Hansard of Jenny's speech and debate

CPAC: NDP MPs Discuss Liberals’ Border Bill

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Leah Gazan hold a news conference on Parliament Hill to discuss Bill C-12, the Liberal government’s border security bill. They are joined by representatives from women’s organizations and advocates for immigrant and refugee rights. (December 9, 2025) (no interpretation)

Click image or link to watch the press conference video - https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/ndp-mps-discuss-liberals-border-bill?id=4387467a-f6bc-4914-8f9a-57162568dfc6

Media Release: NDP MPs Join Women’s Organizations and Migrant Rights Advocates Condemning Bill C-12

NDP MPs Join Women’s Organizations and Migrant Rights Advocates Condemning Bill C-12

OTTAWA—NDP MPs Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) and Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) are standing alongside women’s organizations and migrant rights advocates calling on all Members of Parliament to reject the Liberals’ border and immigration legislation, Bill C-12, expected to be voted on at third reading this week.

“With Bill C-12, we’re again seeing the Liberals abandon their commitments to gender equality, pushing through legislation straight out of Trump’s playbook,” said Gazan. “Bill C-12 would place greater restrictions on women asylum seekers fleeing gender based violence, and would force many to stay in abusive relationships or unsafe working conditions as their immigration or refugee status is made more precarious. It clearly undermines women’s safety, but the Liberals do not seem to care.”

Among those joined by Gazan and Kwan include representatives of Fédération des femmes du Québec, Amnesty International, Centre des travailleurs et travailleuses immigrants, Action Réfugiés Montréal, and the Canadian Council for Refugees. According to these organizations, Bill C-12 retains many of the human rights violating provisions from the Government’s border bill, Bill C-2, which disproportionately harm women and gender diverse populations.

As NDP critic for Public Safety, MP Kwan shared her disappointment that the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois voted down NDP amendments to minimize harms on newcomers and asylum claimants. Civil society organizations have said loud and clear that Bill C-12 should be withdrawn. Despite that, the Liberals worked hand in glove with the Conservatives and Bloc to push it through the legislative process.

"Canada should not be violating migrants’ rights, especially those of women and children,” Kwan said. “I am dismayed that the Liberals have joined hands with both the Conservatives and Bloc to reject all of the NDP amendments, including amendments to exempt unaccompanied children, survivors of gender based violence and 2SLGBTQI+ members from being arbitrarily sent back to war zones, places ravaged by environmental disaster or where they face persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity."

“This bill is a total affront to dignity, fairness, due process and gender equality. The NDP will continue to fight for the rights of newcomers, migrants and refugees," said Kwan.

 

Hill Times: Liberal border bill returns to the House after Conservative, Bloc enhancements at committee

Recognized opposition parties are signalling they remain open to advancing the Liberals’ updated border bill that would expand federal powers to deny entry to Canada and to remove migrants already here. And despite their amendments being “expeditiously rejected,” the NDP and a broad coalition of migrant and civil liberties groups are reaffirming their demands to withdraw a bill they say would make former prime minister Stephen Harper blush.

“If this bill had been introduced under a Conservative government, the Liberals would be the first out there howling [against it], louder than anyone,” NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration and public safety critic, told The Hill Times.

Introduced on Oct. 8, Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, updates the Liberals’ stalled Bill C-2, one of several omnibus bills introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) new government in June.

It would also give the government significant new powers to crack down on asylum seekers, and block or cancel visa applications. Those powers, first proposed in C-2, also attracted plenty of criticism outside Parliament, but have been included in the new bill essentially unaltered.

On Nov. 24, a coalition of civil society and immigration advocates held a press conference on Parliament Hill to “denounce” Bill C-12, and to demand its withdrawal.

Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/12/03/liberal-border-bill-returns-to-the-house-after-conservative-bloc-enhancements-at-committee/484314/

Statement on C-12 amendments being rejected by committee

Statement from MP Jenny Kwan on Bill C-12 Amendments Being Rejected at Public Safety and National Security Committee

I condemn the Public Safety Committee’s decision to reject vital amendments to Bill C-12. This legislation is a dangerous step backwards for refugee rights in Canada. The Liberals should be criticized for taking their direction from Conservatives and even from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant playbook, rushing the bill forward with minimal consultation and ignoring the voices of those most knowledgeable about its consequences. Critical stakeholders—including the Canadian Council for Refugees—were not even invited to appear as witnesses. Instead, the Liberals teamed up with the Bloc and Conservatives to force the bill through committee without proper scrutiny.

Bill C-12 embeds a stigmatizing narrative that treats refugees as security threats rather than human beings seeking protection. Its arbitrary one-year bar on making an asylum claim—applied retroactively—will endanger people who only later face persecution.

The bill’s sweeping information-sharing powers, which the Liberals refused to limit despite clear warnings from Amnesty International, the Canadian Bar Association and refugee advocates. Without safeguards, personal data could be shared across government departments and level of government, increasing the risk that LGBTQ+ claimants or survivors of gender-based violence could be inadvertently outed—placing them in serious danger.

The Liberals, supported by the Bloc and Conservatives, rejected amendments that would have prevented claimants from being trapped in pre-screening limbo; ensured clear limits on documents the Minister can demand; protected vulnerable people from wrongful “abandonment” of claims; maintained timelines for Refugee Appeal Division decisions; ensured access to a fair pre-removal risk-assessment hearing; set parliamentary oversight over sweeping “public interest” cancellation powers; and prevented retroactive, unjust application of new rules.

Bill C-12 is being pushed through by the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois working hand-in-hand to take this regressive turn. Copying Trump-style policies is discriminatory, dangerous, and fundamentally un-Canadian.

HANSARD: Table petition calling government to withdraw Bill C-2

HANSARD: Speech and Debate Opposing Bill C-12

Click below to read the Hansard of the debate

Media Release: Response to Prime Minister Carney’s Statement on Public Safety

MP Jenny Kwan’s Response to Prime Minister Carney’s Statement on Public Safety

The NDP wants a fair and balanced system that ensures public safety, due process and protects the civil liberties of Canadians.  The Carney government’s introduction of Bills C-2 and C-12 are deeply flawed attempts to rebrand executive overreach as ‘border reform’ to appease Trump.  These bills would strip away due process for refugee claimants, hand sweeping cancellation powers to the minister, and quietly expand surveillance and data-sharing authorities with minimal oversight. Canada should not let Trump shape our future.  Canada’s immigration and privacy systems are being rewritten in ways that undermine fairness, transparency, and fundamental rights. While some of the most extreme elements were watered down in C-12, the core problems remain: too much power in the hands of cabinet, too few safeguards for vulnerable people, and virtually no accountability.

The hiring of 1,000 CBSA officers is a re-announcement that is long overdue.  In 2012, the Conservative government, with Pierre Poilievre in cabinet, cut 1,100 border officers in one day, leaving Canada more vulnerable to illegal guns and drugs crossing into Canada.  The Liberals have been in government for 10 years and they have failed to act.  

The Customs Immigration Union (CIU), representing our CBSA officers, estimates that we currently lack as many as 3,000 border officers across the country. This means that border crossings are consistently operating with reduced staff who just do not have the time, means or support to effectively search for illegal firearms, contraband, stolen vehicles and work with asylum seekers.

The shortage of frontline workers has contributed to an escalation of illegal activities. For example, regarding auto theft at the Port of Montreal - the on-site space available for officers to perform expected inspections is severely limited with only eight officers to search the containers intended for exports. 

In Vancouver, the elimination of the Port police by the Conservatives has escalated the drug trafficking problem for our communities.  

The announcement today is only the first step. 

There is an urgent need of increasing the number of frontline CBSA officers by 3000 as stated by the CIU. Furthermore, the Carney government needs to ensure these officers have the proper working tools and facilities to do their jobs and provide new CBSA training centre for new recruits.  The NDP is further calling for the Carney government to bring back the Port police in Vancouver. 

Toronto Star: Carney government tables toned-down version of tougher immigration law

Jenny Kwan, the NDP’s critic on immigration, said in a social media post before the bill was tabled that the “sudden reversal” shows it was flawed from the start.

“Why was the ‘safety’ border bill rushed without consultation or due diligence?” she said. “Public safety legislation should never be driven by Trump or foreign politics. Canadians deserve better.”

The new legislation includes the other elements included in Bill C-2, including restricting access to asylum, increasing authorities’ control over immigration documents, expanding border officers’ ability to inspect exports, giving the Canadian Coast Guard security patrol powers and allowing more information sharing with other levels of government and the United States.

Click link to read the news story - https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/carney-government-tables-toned-down-version-of-tougher-immigration-law/article_f341b3c5-b107-4127-8cd5-4f1059871643.html