A motion has been introduced in Canada’s House of Commons calling for non-citizens convicted of serious crimes and facing legal proceedings to be barred from claiming asylum.
A U.S. and a Canadian flag fly at the Canada-U.S. border crossing on the Thousand Islands Bridge, which is closed to non-essential vehicles to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada, September 28, 2020. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg (REUTERS/Lars Hagberg)The motion was moved by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner on Tuesday after a controversy surrounding more than a dozen people accused of extortion-related crimes, including several Indian nationals, who claimed asylum in the recent past.
This point was made by Garner when he spoke in the House on Tuesday, as he said, “The foreign nationals were identified by BC’s extortion task force, but once the CBSA began their investigation, they claimed to be refugees.”
He was referring to a task force set up in British Columbia to deal with an epidemic of extortion cases in places like Surrey and the Canadian Border Services Agency checking their immigration status. “As a result, the deportation of the 14 suspects has been suspended until the Immigration and Refugee Board decides whether they have a valid case for asylum.”
The proposal calls for barring those convicted of such crimes from filing asylum claims or facing legal proceedings, as well as ending the practice of “flexibility for non-citizens convicted of serious crimes to avoid deportation.”
His motion came when party leader Pierre Poiliev posted on X, “If you are a non-citizen convicted of a serious crime, you cannot claim refugee status to avoid punishment or to get a reduced sentence because it could get you deported.”
That stance was echoed by British Columbia Premier David Eby, who described it as “ridiculous” that someone associated with his views on “terrorist attacks in our community” is “allowed to claim refugee status benefits in our country out of concern for the world’s largest democracy to return to India.” EB made these comments last week.
