Canada’s Supreme Court set to rule on Safe Third Country deal – National | 24CA News
Canada’s high court docket will ship the ultimate phrase Friday on whether or not the pact between Canada and the United States to regulate the circulate of asylum seekers violates their basic rights.
The Safe Third Country Agreement, which got here into impact in 2004, acknowledges Canada and the U.S. as protected locations for potential refugees to hunt safety.
Under the settlement, refugees should search asylum within the first of the 2 international locations they land in, making it unlawful to cross the border and search asylum within the different nation.
Opponents of the treaty requested the highest court docket to declare that the laws underpinning the pact violates the appropriate to life, liberty and safety of the individual, saying the U.S. shouldn’t be truly protected for a lot of asylum seekers.
The Canadian authorities argued to Supreme Court justices that returnees have entry to truthful asylum and detention processes south of the border.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to develop the treaty in March in order that it will apply alongside all 8,900 kilometres of the shared border, not simply at official crossings.
Before then, a loophole allowed asylum seekers who arrived between official factors of entry alongside the land border to make claims in Canada regardless of having arrived within the U.S. first.
Opponents of the pact have mentioned it runs counter to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as a result of returning folks to the U.S. exposes them to dangers within the type of detention and different rights violations.
The Supreme Court’s resolution will lastly put to relaxation the long-standing authorized battle first launched by a number of refugee claimants in Federal Court in 2007.
The Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches and Amnesty International additionally participated within the proceedings as public curiosity events.
The first problem was profitable, however was later overturned. A repeated try by the identical group of organizations that started in 2017 noticed the identical final result.
In each circumstances, the candidates, who’re residents of El Salvador, Ethiopia and Syria, arrived at a Canadian land entry port from the U.S. and sought refugee safety.
In her 2020 resolution, Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald concluded the Safe Third Country Agreement leads to ineligible claimants being imprisoned by U.S. authorities.
Detention and the results flowing from it are “inconsistent with the spirit and objective” of the refugee settlement and quantity to a violation of the rights assured by Section 7 of the Charter, she wrote.
“The evidence clearly demonstrates that those returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials are detained as a penalty.”
The Federal Court of Appeal overturned her resolution in 2021.
Last yr, Canada obtained 20,891 refugee claims from individuals who crossed the border outdoors of an official border crossing, federal information present.
In the primary three months of 2023, earlier than the settlement was prolonged to use to the complete border, Canada obtained 14,192 refugee claims from irregular border crossers.
This yr’s growth of the settlement eliminated unofficial crossings akin to Roxham Road in Quebec as viable choices for potential asylum seekers to get to Canada.
The Supreme Court heard arguments within the case earlier than Trudeau and Biden introduced that replace.
Amnesty International has mentioned the up to date settlement creates an much more harmful and unfair scenario for folks searching for asylum in Canada.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
