JRNL 520H – Data Journalism
Assignment 3: Pitch for final story
Juan Merchan
UBC – School of Journalism, Writing, and Media
While the Total Number of Immigration Detainees Decreased in The Past 2 Years, The Rate of Detention Increased
Amidst the grievance and questions that surged after the death of a detainee in the Laval Detention Center in late January, data shows that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is actually detaining individuals at a higher rate since March 2020. Experts explain why this is concerning.
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is detaining more individuals at a higher rate since the beginning of the pandemic, data shows[1].
After March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, and given the pressure the Canadian Government was facing to provide a release of inmates who represented little risk to society, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) informed the number of immigration detainees was dropping.
What was missed from that statement is that the total number of travelers coming into Canada plummeted given the travel restrictions imposed to mitigate the spread of the virus[2], understandably bringing the total number of detentions down as well.
Data available now shows that the rate of detention, which is the number of individuals being detained compared to the total number of foreign nationals coming into Canada, has been in a growth trend since the pandemic first hit. The detention rate jumped from 0.4% right before the pandemic was declared, to 0.9% after March 2020. It hasn’t gone down to pre-pandemic rates since then.
Why is this concerning?
With the death of an immigration detainee at the Immigration Holding Center in Laval, Quebec past January 30, the discussion regarding the Canadian immigration detention policies — and the conditions of detention in the CBSA’s holding centers — has revived.
The international non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch have asked the Canadian government to abolish immigration detention[3] by finding alternatives to detention[4].
It’s not the first time that the rights group raises concerns about the CBSA detention process. In 2021, in a joint statement with Amnesty International, the organization released an extensive report called “Immigration Detention in Canada and its Impact on Mental Health[5]” where they denounced the inhumane conditions of the CBSA detention centers, the sweeping police powers the agency has, and treatment of immigration detainees using policies and practices corresponding to criminal offenders[6].
CBSA’s detention policies are regulated by the Section 14 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Actor IRPA, and it is governed by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Emergency Preparedness. This latter minister directly oversees the CBSA operation[7].
The IRPA outlines the reasons why a CBSA officers can execute an immigration detention[8], the most common three being: the unlikelihood that the individual would appear at a future hearing, the potential danger the individual may pose to the country, and the fact that the individual’s identity could not be confirmed[9].
The decision is made by the immigration officer in charge of the examination of the individual[10]. However, it’s not clear what other factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether to detain an individual or not.
Julia Sande, a Human Rights Law campaigner at Amnesty International Canada, says the decision to detain an individual based on the IRPA’s mandates is up to the discretion of the individual officer who is making the assessment. “And it’s difficult too, because it’s entirely up to that person’s discretion. It could be the case that someone has mental health conditions, and that that’s used as a reason to think they might not appear (for a hearing).”[11]
“I think that to have such an impactful decision based on one person’s discretion is pretty concerning”, she adds.
Use of Provincial Facilities as Alternative Holding Centers
CBSA’s data also shows that, since March 2020, the agency has been using provincial correctional facilities as alternatives detention centers more often than before. While before the pandemic the use of the Immigration Holding Centers (IHC) was frequent, now detention is more likely to take place in some other facilities.
This goes against the recommendations given by the Canadian Red Cross in their 2018 to 2019 annual report, where they specifically advised that “the use of provincial correctional facilities for immigration detention should be exceptional and the CBSA should explore capacity for their separation from those remanded and serving sentences under the Criminal Code to the greatest extent possible.”[12]
The CBSA is legally allowed to make use of three types of detention facilities: the 3 national IHCs, a large number of provincial facilities and some other facilities such as local and provincial police cells, ports of entry and RCMP detachments[13].
Stephanie Bishop Hall, a social justice litigator working in migration law in Toronto, thinks the difference is huge if the individuals are held at the immigration holding centers, compared to provincial facilities detention, especially given the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic[14].
“The conditions are drastically different from what somebody is going to experience at a provincial institution. They are experiencing not only an exposure to COVID-19, but there is a compounding impact given the procedures that these institutions have put in place, in an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19, which have resulted in really severe deprivation of basic rights like phones and showers.”
Bishop Hall says that the detainees at provincial facilities are having a difficult time to access the COVID-19 vaccination. They can also spend up to 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, not getting any opportunity to socialize with anyone.
She gives the specific example about the detention conditions at the Maplehurst Correctional Facility, in Milton, Ontario. “I have a client there and he’s in an overpopulated bunk. There are three people, and he is the one who has been sleeping on the floor throughout his detention there”. This is particularly concerning given the risk of exposure to the virus. “This person is just compounding risk on top of risk. They’re in an overpopulated facility in an overpopulated cell subjected to all of these things.”
“If you took somebody for a walk through Maplehurst, I think that they would have a change of heart about what kind of detention is appropriate”, she comments.
Here you can explore all the provincial facilities being used by the CBSA as alternative detention centers across Canada. There has been at least one news report raising concerns about the conditions of detention in every facility in the past two years.
CARTOGRAPHY VISUALIZATION
Length of Detention
The issue regarding conditions of detention of these facilities becomes more concerning given another striking fact that the CBSA data shows.
In the past three years, the length of the CBSA detention has increased, meaning that individuals are being held for many more days than before the pandemic. As an example, the 2020-2021 fiscal year shows that individuals who are detained for more than 99 days make up for 10% of the total. Before the pandemic it was only 3%[15].
Sande says that there’s no legislative limit on the number of days that someone can be held in detention. “In really extreme cases, it can be years and years that they’re held in detention.”
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