{"id":80875,"date":"2020-10-27T11:07:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/immigrationca.staging.wpengine.com\/decision-to-strike-down-safe-third-country-agreement-stayed-by-federal-court-of-appeal"},"modified":"2021-05-10T23:18:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T03:18:49","slug":"decision-to-strike-down-safe-third-country-agreement-stayed-by-federal-court-of-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/decision-to-strike-down-safe-third-country-agreement-stayed-by-federal-court-of-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision to Strike Down Safe Third Country Agreement Stayed By Federal Court of Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s Federal Court of Appeal has granted a Trudeau government request to stay a ruling to strike down the Safe Third Country Agreement<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The July ruling was due to come into effect in January 2021, but will now be stayed until a final ruling is made on a federal government\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

In his decision, Federal Court of Appeal Justice David Stratas wrote: \u201cThe motion is granted. The judgment of the Federal Court stays until the final determination of the appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read More<\/b><\/p>\n

Federal Government to Appeal Safe Third Country Agreement Ruling<\/a><\/span>
\nFederal Judge Says Safe Third Country Agreement Violates Canadian Constitution<\/a>
\nCanada Wants to Close USA Safe Third Country Agreement Loophole and Begin Border Exit Controls<\/a>
\nQuebec Mulls Giving Asylum Seekers Working in Care Homes Pathway to Permanent Residence<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Safe Third Country Agreement, in place since 2004, means asylum seekers must make their refugee claim in the first \u2018safe\u2019 country to which they arrive.<\/p>\n

In practice it means Canada can turn back potential refugee claimants who arrive at recognized land points of entry along the U.S. border, advising them to make their claims in the U.S.<\/p>\n

It is also the reason thousands of asylum seekers have flooded into Canada at unrecognized border points in recent years, using it as a back door into the Canadian immigration system. Around 1,000 would-be asylum seekers were crossing into Canada each month until the coronavirus pandemic struck, resulting in the closure of the border.<\/p>\n

Agreement Violates Constitution<\/h3>\n

Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald said in her July 22 decision that elements of the agreement violate the constitutional guarantee of life, liberty and security, suspending her decision for six months to give authorities time to adjust.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then Ottawa has appealed the decision, and it has now been suspended further, until the conclusion of the appeal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Refugee groups have long fought against the agreement, saying the U.S. is not a \u2018safe\u2019 country for claimants to be sent back to.<\/p>\n

The original case was brought to court by a group including refugee claimants, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches and Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

The group claimed that by sending people back to the U.S., they are potentially exposing them to detention and rights violations.<\/p>\n

Justice McDonald agreed that those turned back faced imprisonment, saying the outcome was \u201cinconsistent with the spirit and objective\u201d of the Safe Third Country Agreement, resulting in a violation of rights.<\/p>\n

U.S. Refugees Flee North<\/h3>\n

The Safe Third Country Agreement has been further brought into the spotlight since Donald Trump became president in 2016.<\/p>\n

Trump moved to threaten the refugee status of thousands in the U.S., causing them to flee north to Canada.<\/p>\n

However, because of the agreement, claimants chose to cross into Canada at unrecognized border points, allowing them to enter the Canadian refugee system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s Federal Court of Appeal has granted a Trudeau government request to stay a ruling to strike down the Safe Third Country Agreement. The July ruling was due to come into effect in January 2021, but will now be stayed until a final ruling is made on a federal government\u2019s appeal. In his decision, Federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":80870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4859,4668],"tags":[70263,70264,58742,68000],"class_list":["post-80875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lactualite-canadienne","category-c33-refugee-immigration-fr","tag-canada-refugee-immigration-fr","tag-federal-court-of-appeal-fr","tag-federal-government-fr","tag-safe-third-country-agreement-fr","category-4859","category-4668","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}