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Ten Things You Need To Know About Bill C-4

July 29th, 2011
  1. Under Bill C-4, men, women, children in a “designated” group have to be locked up upon arrival in Canada. It is the Minister who decides whether a group of asylum seeker should be designated.
  2. Everyone who is locked up this way is not allowed a review of their detention for at least 12 months. (In contrast, under the current law, everyone locked up gets independent review of their detention within 48 hours of being detained).
  3. Putting people in prison without a trial and without the possibility of a review for 12 months violates the right to have the detention reviewed by way of habeas corpus (s. 10) and the  protection against arbitrary detention (s. 9) of the Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms.
  4. The denial of liberty without due process and the imposition of arbitrary detention are also a violation of s. 9 of the most fundamental civil rights convention in international law – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
  5. Punishing people who are seeking refugee status is also a violation of section 31 of  the International Convention on the Status of Refugee (The Refugee Convention) that prohibits imposing penalties for the illegal entry of people fleeing persecution.
  6. Bill C-4 would also deny the designated refugees the right to travel documents for at least 5 years.  This again violates the Refugee Convention that provides that people must be given travel documents.
  7. Permanent residents are also targeted under Bill C-4, which would allow the government to detain a permanent resident on entry into Canada if the officer suspects that the person is inadmissible on grounds of any criminal activity, even if the person has not been charged or convicted.
  8. Bill C-4 says that its goal is to prevent human smuggling – but most of its provisions have nothing to do with smugglers (most of its provisions punish people who are trying to escape from terrible dangers and looking for safe haven).
  9. Human smuggling is a serious problem and it requires enforcement of current laws against smugglers, not violations of the Charter and of international law. Our current laws already contain ample provisions for detentions for threat to national security or serious crimes.
  10. Bill C-4 has not yet passed.  If enough Canadians tell the government that it is not what they want, unconstitutional and un-Canadian, maybe it never will become law.