What! In Canada?

"A CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] officer essentially has the discretion to determine that somebody should be held in maximum security jail conditions."
"It was really surprising to me ... that decision was totally discretionary and also not subject to any rules."
Renu Mandhane, criminal lawyer, University of Toronto International Human Rights Program

"The dramatic plunge in removals accompanied by a disproportionate rise in detention since 2012 are huge red flags pointing to a detentions program that is out of control."
Reg Williams, 2004-2012 director of CBSA immigration enforcement

Pam Shiraldini and Melika Mojarrab, 15, sit in front of the Lindsay jail after visting Masoud Hajivand, held in immigration detention there.   LIAM MALONEY FOR GLOBAL NEWS

Illegal migrants entering Canada are a problem. In fact, they're a problem everywhere. People fleeing their home countries as a result of violent threats, conflict, intimidation, oppression, economic plight, and looking for safe haven, an opportunity to do better for themselves and their families. Sometimes those migrants are criminals, fleeing justice. Far more often, however, they're innocent people caught in the throes of threatening upheaval.

A new report has surfaced titled "We have No Rights", the work of students Hanna Gros and Paloma van Groll, out of the law faculty of University of Toronto's rights program which makes note of the troubling problem of jailing migrants. In particular, they point out, migrants with mental-health problems for whom such incarceration exacerbates their condition.

Several recommendations have come out of the report; one in particular that recommends the creation of an independent body or an ombudsman's office for oversight, and with the authority to investigate the border services agency. Alternatives to detention, above all, is also urged. Jailing anyone beyond 90 days should require court oversight for longer stretches of incarceration.

To begin with, the utility and humanity of placing people seeking haven in a criminal category seems somehow unjust. Looking for a better life should not result in imprisonment. Yet the report highlights profiles of detainees who have been imprisoned for up to eight years. In interviews, those detainees complained of a lack of access to support services, confinement in cold, windowless cells, and their resulting despair.

Over 7,300 migrants were detained in Canada in 2013, costing over $50-million. If that kind of money is spent on detention, why not use it to provide more humane conditions until the status of the migrants can be negotiated and finalized as any decent self-respecting country should do? One third of those detainees were held in jails, though few among them might be considered to be criminals.

According to Reg Williams, formerly director of CBSA immigration enforcement, the agency has transformed to a "paramilitaristic" one; instead of cooperation, force is emphasized. Detentions have become "more akin to storage", of human cargo. Surely, alternatives to demeaning, anti-humane detention could be and should be initiated to deal with human beings in need to support, not punishment.

"People aren’t detained because they have mental health issues. That’s not part of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. That’s not a reason to detain somebody in itself."
IRB [Immigration and Refugee Board] spokesperson Anna Pape

"[Detention is considered a last resort for people with behavioural and mental health problems]. However, if detention is required (for example, due to a flight risk), CBSA guidelines state that detention of vulnerable individuals should be for the shortest time possible and primarily focused on supporting the removal of that individual."
"The CBSA wants to make sure that it is exercising responsibility for detentions to the highest possible standards, with physical and mental health and well-being of detainees as the primary consideration‎."
CBSA statement