ACTION: Trudeau to reject Safe Third Country Agreement . . .

ACTION: Trudeau to reject Safe Third Country Agreement . . .

Postby Oscar » Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:10 am

ACTION: To tell the Trudeau government to immediately rescind the Safe Third Country agreement, please go to our online action alert here: [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

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Goodale should reject Safe Third Country agreement before Homeland Security meeting

[ http://canadians.org/blog/goodale-shoul ... ty-meeting ]

February 27, 2017 - 7:12 am

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he won't be raising the Canada-US Safe Third Country agreement when he meets with US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly in the coming days.

On Saturday, CBC reported, "Goodale says he'll be discussing the growing issue of asylum seekers sneaking across the border with senior officials in the United States in the coming days. Goodale, who oversees the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency, said the government is already in communication with some U.S. authorities about the impact unannounced asylum seekers are having on the Canadian refugee system. What is unlikely to be raised in those talks, however, is the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S."

Goodale says, "The terms of the agreement are what they are. The fact of the matter is we have to deal with the real life circumstances that we are facing. We've also had confirmation from the UN High Commission for Refugees that they do not see a basis in the United States for any deviation from the agreement."

And yet earlier this month, The Guardian reported, "The Trump administration considered a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 national guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants ...The memo [was] written by the US homeland security secretary, John Kelly, a retired four-star marine general."

Kelly also defends the executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on January 28 that bans people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for a 90 day period. Refugees were banned for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.

The Homeland Security secretary says, "This is not, I repeat, not a ban on Muslims. The Homeland Security mission is to safeguard the American people, our homeland, our values -- and religious liberty is one of our most fundamental and treasured values. It is important to understand that there are terrorists and other bad actors that are seeking to infiltrate our homeland every single day."

Within the US, Al Jazeera has reported, "The number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the US has nearly tripled since Trump launched his presidential election campaign in 2015. The Southern Poverty Law Center [also] documented nearly 900 hate incidents within the 10 days after Trump's election on November 8, but noted it was 'almost certainly a small fraction of the actual number' because of under-reporting. Many of the perpetrators invoked the president-elect's name during the incidents, indicating the surge was linked or motivated by his electoral win, the report said."

And yet, Goodale maintains that the United States is a safe country.

He is also seemingly ignoring an open letter from more than 200 law professors from across this country that says Trump's travel ban is "inconsistent with the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Convention Against Torture, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and many other international human rights instruments."

Instead of taking immediate action to rescind the Safe Third Country agreement, Goodale will be in Washington to provide information to Homeland Security, though to what end he does not explain.

Goodale says, "This flow [of refugees crossing the Canadian border] is originating in their country and they need to be fully apprised of the consequences that we're dealing with on our side of the border. We're obviously explaining to them what we're dealing with … and making that sure they understand what's happening on their side of the border to fill in any information gaps."

To tell the Trudeau government to immediately rescind the Safe Third Country agreement, please go to our online action alert here: https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
Oscar
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Re: ACTION: Trudeau to reject Safe Third Country Agreement .

Postby Oscar » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:54 am

Tell Trudeau to rescind Safe Third Country agreement at March 7 cabinet meeting

[ http://canadians.org/blog/tell-trudeau- ... et-meeting ]

March 6, 2017 - 8:25 am

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet will discuss the Canada-US Safe Third Country agreement on Tuesday March 7.

The Canadian Press reports, "Federal cabinet ministers are set for an in-depth discussion of the practical and political pressures being placed on the Liberal government by a rising number of asylum seekers in Canada. Border security, RCMP and immigration officials have been running scenarios to prepare for the possibility that a relative winter trickle of crossings into Canada could turn into a spring flood. The results of their table-top exercises will help form options being put before cabinet Tuesday."

The article highlights, "Ministers will also consider whether there is room to alter the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S."

The Council of Canadians has been calling on Trudeau through this online action alert to rescind the Safe Third Country Agreement: [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

The CBC has explained, "Under the agreement, which came into effect in 2004, individuals seeking protection must make a claim in the first country they arrive in — either Canada or the U.S. That requires Canada to send back to the U.S. any claimants entering Canada via its land border with the U.S., based on the premise that the U.S. is a safe country in which they can make their asylum claim."

But, as The Globe and Mail explains, "Migrants who cross at open fields or other unguarded areas are not covered by the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, and have the right to make a refugee claim in Canada."

That provision is part of the reason we are seeing an increased number of refugees risking their lives in the cold and snow to cross into Canada unofficially.

This weekend, The Globe and Mail reported, "Asylum seekers [who are crossing into Canada by foot] are arrested as they enter [from the US], at which point the RCMP conducts checks to see if they were engaged in criminal acts such as trafficking. They [are then] transferred to the Canada Border Services Agency. So far this year, 435 people were arrested at the border by the RCMP before being transferred to the CBSA."

The article adds, "A number of the recent claimants said they were fleeing a climate of intolerance in the United States and the threat of deportation stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements on illegal immigration. Canadian officials said large numbers of recent asylum seekers have come from Somalia, Djibouti and the Middle East, in addition to countries such as Romania. The largest increase in illegal border crossings has been seen in Quebec, although there have been dramatic stories of people crossing into Manitoba in frigid and life-threatening conditions."

Amnesty International, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, No One Is Illegal, the federal New Democratic Party, the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and more than 200 law professors have called on Trudeau to scrap the agreement brought in by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin and US president George W. Bush.

But instead of scrapping the agreement, the RCMP has confirmed that the Trudeau government and the Trump administration have agreed on an "action plan which outlines a collaborative approach to dealing with the influx of asylum seekers.” That action plan has not been made public.

US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will also be meeting with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale in Ottawa on Friday March 10 to discuss plans to address the issue of asylum seekers.

To tell Trudeau to agree to rescind the Safe Third Country agreement at the March 7 cabinet meeting, please go to our online action alert here now: [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
Oscar
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Re: ACTION: Trudeau to reject Safe Third Country Agreement .

Postby Oscar » Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:55 am

ACTION: To tell the Trudeau government to immediately rescind the agreement, please go to our online action alert here: [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

= = =

Public Safety Minister Goodale & US Homeland Security Secretary discuss asylum seekers

[ http://canadians.org/blog/public-safety ... um-seekers ]

March 13, 2017 - 6:35 pm

The Council of Canadians has been calling on the Trudeau government to rescind the Canada-US Safe Third Country agreement.

In short, the agreement, which came into effect in 2004 under George W. Bush and Paul Martin, says that individuals seeking asylum must make a claim in the first country they arrive in - either Canada or the United States. That means that Canada must send claimants entering from the US back to that country on the premise that the US is a safe country. But migrants who cross an open field rather than at an official border post are not covered by the agreement and therefore have the right to make a refugee claim in Canada and not be sent back to the United States.

Given the Trump administration's imposition of travel bans on travellers from several Muslim-majority countries, plus the increase in hate-crimes against Muslims and the growth in the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the US, as well as the overall xenophobic, anti-immigrant tone of the Trump administration, migrants are increasingly fleeing from the US to Canada to file their asylum claims.

This past Friday (March 10), Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale met with US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Kelly is the retired four-star US Marine Corps general who wrote a memo last month proposing that as many as 100,000 National Guard troops be mobilized to round up unauthorized immigrants in the US.

When Kelly was asked why he thought there was an increase in the number of irregular border crossings, he replied he was "perplexed" by the situation.

Now, Goodale writes in a report on that meeting, "When my American counterpart, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, came to Ottawa last Friday, we had a lot to talk about. ...One topic I discussed in particular with Secretary Kelly was the influx of asylum seekers coming into Canada by walking across the border at certain irregular locations. ...These are people who feel they are in danger or at risk, and once they get themselves into Canada by whatever means, they claim asylum in this country for their personal protection. ...We are working now on both sides of the border to determine exactly where these people are coming from, how and why."

He adds, "To be clear – trying to slip across the border in an irregular manner is not a 'free' ticket to Canada. The asylum seekers are apprehended and secured by police or local authorities. Their identities are determined from both biographic and biometric information. Health checks are done. Their records are examined for any immigration, criminal or terrorist flags against both Canadian and international databases. Those who cannot be identified, are a flight risk or pose a danger to the public can be detained. They all go before the quasi-judicial Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to adjudicate their status through due process. If they are found to be inadmissible without a valid claim, deportation procedures are begun."

And Goodale concludes, "As discussed with Secretary Kelly, both Canada and the United States are committed to sharing information about this situation so we can fully understand these migrant flows, both at and between Ports of Entry. We are also both committed to upholding our strong asylum systems and to humane and professional law enforcement."

Amnesty International, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, No One Is Illegal, the federal New Democratic Party, the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and more than 200 law professors have all called on Trudeau to scrap the Safe Third Country agreement.

We are profoundly disappointed that the public safety minister and the prime minister have chosen not to do so.

To tell the Trudeau government to immediately rescind the agreement, please go to our online action alert here:
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65127 ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
Oscar
Site Admin
 
Posts: 9079
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm


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