- Aug 6, 2012
- 27,885
- 24,688
- 2,405
A well known tactic in Canada, to jail immigrants who are not criminals nor had their day in court, or found guilty, they are imprisoned for an unheard period of time. Last I read, there was a man in prison for 5 years, and he's not the worst case. Leave your country for "freedom" in Canada and sit in prison for half a decade. Thanks for considering Canada for your new home.
There is a massive irony here as well, as CBC and other networks in Canada have argued that Guantanamo Bay is inhumane and goes against human rights, even as these men are considered the most dangerous in society, and most have engaged in terror. Yet, there is little to no discussion about Canadas own long term prisoning of thousands of immigrants, hundreds of them children. In maximum security prisons. Their crime or accusation? They don't exist, at best, some have mental health issues. Canada is just a wannabe East Germany, and express this compulsion yet again.
There are many reasons Canada is not trusted by allies, this is just one of many.
Canada blasted for ‘needlessly punitive’ immigration detention system | Toronto Star
Last year Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced that $138 million would be invested to “enhance alternatives to detention” and rebuild immigration holding facilities, after a series of deaths of detainees, including Francisco Javier Romero Astorga, a Chilean, at Maplehurst; Melkioro Gahungu, a Burundian, at Toronto East; and an unnamed 24-year-old man in Edmonton.
Earlier this year, a Star investigative series also documented how hundreds of migrants were trapped in lengthy detention in maximum security facilities.
The number of people in detention has dropped to 6,251 last year from 8,739 in 2012, with the number of children in detention falling to 162 from 232. The federal government has also restored heath-care coverage for refugees and provided new funding to improve mental and medical health services for immigration detainees.
“Canada’s renewed efforts to become a global leader as a multicultural safe haven for refugees and migrants should be applauded, but it needs to move quickly to address the serious human rights violations of some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Samer Muscati, director of the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program, which led the joint submission to the UN.
“It’s time that Canada lives up to its human rights reputation by ending the needless detention of children and migrants with mental health conditions when alternatives already exist.”
While the criminal justice system has built-in mechanisms to safeguard inmates’ rights and treatment, Muscati said the immigration detention system has a much lower bar and individuals are detained for being flight risks, dangers to the public or having an undetermined identity.
“The legislative scheme is . . . not required by law to consider individuals’ mental health in decisions to detain individuals or continue their detention,” said the group submission.
“There is no effective and transparent monitoring of the conditions of confinement for detainees held in provincial jails, as independent monitors are often barred access to these facilities and their reports are not published.”
Although an independent tribunal conducts regular reviews of the continued detention, detainees’ mental health issues are seen as a cause for flight risk and danger to the public rather than a factor favouring release.
“The frequency of the detention review hearings is supposed to be a safeguard against indefinite detention, (but) with each decision to continue detention, it becomes more difficult to secure release,” said the report.
“Instead of reviewing previous decisions for potential mistakes, adjudicators take the findings of previous decisions at face value and only look for ‘clear and compelling reasons’ to depart from previous decisions.”
Border officials justify transferring immigration detainees from immigration detention centres to provincial jails for better access to mental health support, but the report said these inmates hardly receive any help.
“Detention causes psychological illness, trauma, depression, anxiety, aggression, and other physical, emotional and psychological consequences,” the report said.
There is a massive irony here as well, as CBC and other networks in Canada have argued that Guantanamo Bay is inhumane and goes against human rights, even as these men are considered the most dangerous in society, and most have engaged in terror. Yet, there is little to no discussion about Canadas own long term prisoning of thousands of immigrants, hundreds of them children. In maximum security prisons. Their crime or accusation? They don't exist, at best, some have mental health issues. Canada is just a wannabe East Germany, and express this compulsion yet again.
There are many reasons Canada is not trusted by allies, this is just one of many.
Canada blasted for ‘needlessly punitive’ immigration detention system | Toronto Star
Last year Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced that $138 million would be invested to “enhance alternatives to detention” and rebuild immigration holding facilities, after a series of deaths of detainees, including Francisco Javier Romero Astorga, a Chilean, at Maplehurst; Melkioro Gahungu, a Burundian, at Toronto East; and an unnamed 24-year-old man in Edmonton.
Earlier this year, a Star investigative series also documented how hundreds of migrants were trapped in lengthy detention in maximum security facilities.
The number of people in detention has dropped to 6,251 last year from 8,739 in 2012, with the number of children in detention falling to 162 from 232. The federal government has also restored heath-care coverage for refugees and provided new funding to improve mental and medical health services for immigration detainees.
“Canada’s renewed efforts to become a global leader as a multicultural safe haven for refugees and migrants should be applauded, but it needs to move quickly to address the serious human rights violations of some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Samer Muscati, director of the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program, which led the joint submission to the UN.
“It’s time that Canada lives up to its human rights reputation by ending the needless detention of children and migrants with mental health conditions when alternatives already exist.”
While the criminal justice system has built-in mechanisms to safeguard inmates’ rights and treatment, Muscati said the immigration detention system has a much lower bar and individuals are detained for being flight risks, dangers to the public or having an undetermined identity.
“The legislative scheme is . . . not required by law to consider individuals’ mental health in decisions to detain individuals or continue their detention,” said the group submission.
“There is no effective and transparent monitoring of the conditions of confinement for detainees held in provincial jails, as independent monitors are often barred access to these facilities and their reports are not published.”
Although an independent tribunal conducts regular reviews of the continued detention, detainees’ mental health issues are seen as a cause for flight risk and danger to the public rather than a factor favouring release.
“The frequency of the detention review hearings is supposed to be a safeguard against indefinite detention, (but) with each decision to continue detention, it becomes more difficult to secure release,” said the report.
“Instead of reviewing previous decisions for potential mistakes, adjudicators take the findings of previous decisions at face value and only look for ‘clear and compelling reasons’ to depart from previous decisions.”
Border officials justify transferring immigration detainees from immigration detention centres to provincial jails for better access to mental health support, but the report said these inmates hardly receive any help.
“Detention causes psychological illness, trauma, depression, anxiety, aggression, and other physical, emotional and psychological consequences,” the report said.
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