Detention

Persons of certain countries of origin such as Pakistan and some African states appear to be detained on the basis of identity for extended periods;

1. The majority of refugee claimants in detention in Toronto and elsewhere are required to pay a bond to be released;
2. Most refugee claimants do not have friends or relatives to pay the bond;
3. The bail program in Toronto is very slow and does not accept all claimants.

1. Many refugee claimants lack identity documents upon arrival;
2. International standards stipulate that people must not be penalized for lack of ID;
3. International guidelines on detention stipulate that undocumented refugee claimants should not normally be detained;

The increasing use of detention by CIC in provincial jails has resulted in the transfer of immigration detainees to remote areas, where they are effectively denied the right to counsel and cannot even contact counsel due to the requirement to communicate via collect calls from these jails;

1. According to IRPA, there is no independent review of:
   a) the decision of an officer to detain a foreign national because their identity has not been established.
   b) the Minister’s opinion that identity has not been established.
   c) once identity has been tendered, the decision that it is insufficient;
2. According to international human rights law, detention without independent review constitutes arbitrary detention;

CBSA has refused to grant NGO access to their Vancouver airport detention facility;

1. NGO access to CBSA Immigration Detention Facilities is necessary;
2. NGO access has become increasingly difficult given strict requirements for security clearance;

1. Detention is a recourse of last resort;
2. Detention of minors must be an exceptional measure;
3. The best interests of the child must be taken into consideration by the government and its tribunals;

1. Section 60 of IRPA says that detention of children should be a measure of last resort;
2. Regulation 249 obliges the consideration of alternatives to detention where children are concerned;
3. The Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges Canada to give primary consideration to the best interests of the child;
4. Children are held in detention centres in Canada either because they are detained or because they are accompanying their detained guardians;
5. CBSA and IRB do not give primary consideration to best interests of the child in their decision-making with regards to detention of children;

1. There are a large number of persons without status who have submitted different forms of requests to regularize their situation;
2. The main way to ask for a decision on humanitarian grounds or other grounds while a person is underground and the subject of an arrest warrant is to present themselves to the Canadian authorities;
3. People without status who present themselves to the Canadian authorities in order to regularize their status are often detained;