On March 15, in response to reports of new information about the Safe Third Country Agreement and Canada, I made the following statement:
“In January 2018, internal memos and briefings provided to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, informed that, ‘with the recent influx of asylum seekers to Canada, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) is no longer working as intended.’ Of course the STCA is not working ‘as intended’.
As I’ve been saying since January 2017, the United States under President Donald Trump is not a safe country for asylum seekers. The entire agreement is predicated upon the notion that Canada and the United States have at least comparable, if not equal, policies and procedures around refugee determination.
Migrant children continue to be taken from their parents and placed in detention. We saw videos of children as young as 3 years old being ordered into court, alone, for their own deportation hearings. There are children that are still lost in the system that might never see their parents again. This is inhumane treatment that flies in the face of Canadian and International Law on the rights of the child.
Gang/Cartel violence and Gender Based Violence are no longer considered grounds for making an asylum claim in the United States. This move intentionally targets Central and South American asylum seekers and again goes against Canadian and International law.
The only change that can be made to the STCA that respects the humanity of asylum seekers and allows Canada to live up to its domestic and international obligations is to suspend the agreement.
Suspending the STCA will allow asylum claimants to make safe, orderly entries into Canada at authorized ports of entry to make an asylum claim. This will improve safety, security, and efficiency throughout Canada’s border communities while providing the respect and dignity that human beings fleeing violence are entitled to under Canadian and International Law.”
Urgent Action Needed on Strathcona Park and other Homeless Encampments - A Joint Call for Action
Urgent action is needed to address the growing homelessness crisis, yet the federal government continues to drag their feet on this issue.
Numbers don’t lie. BC only got 0.5% of funds from finalized agreements through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund. Only two applications were finalized. It was absolutely shocking to see the numbers. The truth is, though, we already suspected that BC was not getting the kind of resources that we need to support and address our homelessness crisis.
Alberta and Quebec have been shut out of the fund altogether, while Ontario has received 94% of the nearly $1.5 billion so far.
To learn more about these figures, please read Dan Fumano's recent coverage of this important story in the Vancouver Sun.
