by Jesse Rosenfeld
Canada’s immigration policies are racist, concludes the final report of the Peoples’ Commission on Immigration Security Measures, released last week at a community centre in east Montreal. The first of its kind in Canada, the Commission – a popular inquiry into the practices and effects of immigration, security, and detention policy – took testimony last April from people who have faced Canadian immigration security measures, their friends and families, academics, experts, and non-governmental organizations. “The image of Canada as a tolerant and inclusive nation is challenged by the experience of many communities in Canada,” the concluding report reads. “The often-painful stories told at the Public Hearings of the Commission confirmed that many who have arrived in this country seeking peace and security have [been] met instead with persecution and insecurity.” The 102-page final report brings attention to the use of security certificates and the detention of people without immigration status for reasons of “national security.” It holds that Canada’s immigration, security, and detention policies violate basic human rights. Under a security certificate, a non-citizen can be held in prison indefinitely without charge and deported after a trial in which the accused never sees the allegations.
Arguing that the post 9/11 political climate has been “one of constantly manufactured crisis,” the report cites the “targeting of Arabs, Muslims and Iranians” as tied to a “larger framework of national security that tends to generalize the perception of these groups as ‘dangerous.’” “Racism affects all the institutions that are dealing with our social services. All those government agencies, policing agencies and school boards…are informed by that racist approach,” said Commissioner Sarita Ahooja, one of nine commissioners, all of whom came from – or had worked with – the immigrant communities addressed in the report. The report includes testimony about racial profiling, harassment, and threats by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The Commission provides recommendations for both government and popular action. Some main recommendations center on the closure of what it termed “Guantanamo North” after the infamous American detention center in Cuba, and which includes Security Certificates, differential immigration law, and the Kingston Immigration Holding Center. In one of its central recommendations, the report calls for the abolition of judicial procedures that grant different rights to citizens, permanent residents, and non-citizens.
“There is no justification for offering second- or third-class justice to people based on their status in the country,” said Jared Will, also a Commissioner. “If there are accusations to be made, if there are concerns to be raised, then everybody should be entitled to the same standard of justice.” Will and Ahooja both pointed to the report’s uniqueness in addressing the human cost of Canada’s current policies of immigration detention, since they compiled testimony from those directly affected. “We heard testimony from a number of individuals who talked about the effect of indefinite detention upon themselves, their psyche, and their emotional state…. As a result of that testimony – as well as testimony from doctors and NGO-sector people – [there was] a recommendation that detention never be indefinite,” said Will. “Government commissions and Royal commissions tend to look at policy, legal analysis, and statistics. But what they tend to gloss over is that all of those statistics are human lives and people’s experiences,” he continued. Will added that it took courage for people to come forward and testify at the Commission because the RCMP and CSIS threaten to deny immigration status to people with whom they need to cooperate. The report also ties issues of immigration and national security measures the struggles of indigenous people in Canada for sovereignty and self-determination. “We can’t talk about immigration security without asking whose security we’re talking about…. You have to deal with indigenous sovereignty and the history of genocide that is the foundation of Canada,” said Will. “There is a very obvious link. You can’t talk about border control and immigration security without looking at which nation is being protected and what that means,” he continued. A draft of the report was submitted to the Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of Security Certificates, which is not yet concluded.
Canada’s immigration policies are racist, concludes the final report of the Peoples’ Commission on Immigration Security Measures, released last week at a community centre in east Montreal. The first of its kind in Canada, the Commission – a popular inquiry into the practices and effects of immigration, security, and detention policy – took testimony last April from people who have faced Canadian immigration security measures, their friends and families, academics, experts, and non-governmental organizations. “The image of Canada as a tolerant and inclusive nation is challenged by the experience of many communities in Canada,” the concluding report reads. “The often-painful stories told at the Public Hearings of the Commission confirmed that many who have arrived in this country seeking peace and security have [been] met instead with persecution and insecurity.” The 102-page final report brings attention to the use of security certificates and the detention of people without immigration status for reasons of “national security.” It holds that Canada’s immigration, security, and detention policies violate basic human rights. Under a security certificate, a non-citizen can be held in prison indefinitely without charge and deported after a trial in which the accused never sees the allegations.
Arguing that the post 9/11 political climate has been “one of constantly manufactured crisis,” the report cites the “targeting of Arabs, Muslims and Iranians” as tied to a “larger framework of national security that tends to generalize the perception of these groups as ‘dangerous.’” “Racism affects all the institutions that are dealing with our social services. All those government agencies, policing agencies and school boards…are informed by that racist approach,” said Commissioner Sarita Ahooja, one of nine commissioners, all of whom came from – or had worked with – the immigrant communities addressed in the report. The report includes testimony about racial profiling, harassment, and threats by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The Commission provides recommendations for both government and popular action. Some main recommendations center on the closure of what it termed “Guantanamo North” after the infamous American detention center in Cuba, and which includes Security Certificates, differential immigration law, and the Kingston Immigration Holding Center. In one of its central recommendations, the report calls for the abolition of judicial procedures that grant different rights to citizens, permanent residents, and non-citizens.
“There is no justification for offering second- or third-class justice to people based on their status in the country,” said Jared Will, also a Commissioner. “If there are accusations to be made, if there are concerns to be raised, then everybody should be entitled to the same standard of justice.” Will and Ahooja both pointed to the report’s uniqueness in addressing the human cost of Canada’s current policies of immigration detention, since they compiled testimony from those directly affected. “We heard testimony from a number of individuals who talked about the effect of indefinite detention upon themselves, their psyche, and their emotional state…. As a result of that testimony – as well as testimony from doctors and NGO-sector people – [there was] a recommendation that detention never be indefinite,” said Will. “Government commissions and Royal commissions tend to look at policy, legal analysis, and statistics. But what they tend to gloss over is that all of those statistics are human lives and people’s experiences,” he continued. Will added that it took courage for people to come forward and testify at the Commission because the RCMP and CSIS threaten to deny immigration status to people with whom they need to cooperate. The report also ties issues of immigration and national security measures the struggles of indigenous people in Canada for sovereignty and self-determination. “We can’t talk about immigration security without asking whose security we’re talking about…. You have to deal with indigenous sovereignty and the history of genocide that is the foundation of Canada,” said Will. “There is a very obvious link. You can’t talk about border control and immigration security without looking at which nation is being protected and what that means,” he continued. A draft of the report was submitted to the Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of Security Certificates, which is not yet concluded.
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