Tories to toughen rules on newcomers

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This article was published 21/06/2012 (5078 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — New legislation introduced Wednesday by the Conservative government gives greater powers to the immigration and public safety ministers to determine who gets to come and stay in Canada.

It’s the latest in a series of changes that have given the immigration minister in particular far more individual say over immigration matters.

The new law, called the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, seeks to cut off avenues for convicted criminals to appeal their deportation.

Currently, anyone who is not a Canadian citizen and is sentenced to less than two years in prison can appeal the automatic deportation order that comes along with a jail term.

But the new law would see that right cut off for sentences of greater than six months, even for permanent residents who have been in Canada for decades.

“I’m more concerned about the rights of law-abiding Canadians who have been victimized by foreign criminals who have delayed their deportation, than I am about the rights of foreign national citizens who committed serious crimes in Canada,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said.

“The one way they can stay in Canada for good is to either become citizens or not commit serious crimes. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

The government argues convicted criminals abuse the existing appeal system to avoid deportation and, in the meantime, remain in Canada for years.

Officials cited examples such as the case of a Peruvian man who sexually assaulted a senior citizen, served 18 months in jail and then managed to delay his deportation by four years.

Kenney said many immigrants convicted of crimes avoid deportation because they are sentenced to less than two years in prison.

According to Statistics Canada, 86 per cent of prison sentences in 2010-11 were for six months or less.

Officials with the Immigration department say there are more than 2,700 deportation orders currently being appealed, with the average file taking 15 months to process.

The proposed legislation also makes it more difficult for those convicted of crimes abroad — and their families — to get into Canada.

It denies entry to the spouses and children of those deemed inadmissible to Canada, such as war criminals.

It also removes the right to appeal on humanitarian or compassionate grounds for people refused entry to Canada on the basis of security, rights violation or organized crime.

Those turned away do have the right to appeal directly to the minister of public safety, but the new law would only require the minister to take national security and public safety factors into account, not humanitarian concerns.

Another provision would allow the minister of public safety to overturn a ruling of inadmissibility “on his or her own initiative.”

The department said this would, for example, allow the minister to admit heads of state into Canada who would ordinarily be considered inadmissible due to past infractions in their home countries.

Officials were quick to clarify this wouldn’t mean war criminals.

Meanwhile, the immigration minister would be given the power to deny someone entry into Canada on the basis of “public policy considerations,” such as a foreign national who promotes violence against a religious group.

Since 2008, Kenney has quietly been amassing more control over immigration, beginning with the use of a device called a “ministerial instruction” that revamped the skilled worker program in a bid to eradicate a major backlog of applications.

In the government’s refugee reform bill, currently before the Senate, the minister is given singular power to draw up a list of safe countries from which those claiming refugee status would receive greater scrutiny.

In the latest proposed legislation, Kenney said the new powers are justified and mirror what other western countries do.

 

— The Canadian Press