Today (October 6) for the first time, Canada’s Supreme Court will hear a Canada-US asylum pact to decide whether the US can be considered a “safe” place for people seeking refugee status.
The outcome will determine whether Canada can trust that the US will treat migrants properly or if Canada can take care of people who’ll be turned away from the borders.
The hearing will majorly focus on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), a pact between the two countries since 2004 for every migrant that is necessary for people to request protection in the first “safe” country they reach.
Defending refugee lawyers stated that the outcome of the hearing will determine the migrant’s future, as few migrants were previously imprisoned in detention during the winter.
Canada has designated the US as a “safe third country” as it maintains high human rights standards.
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However, a judge later ordered the STCA to be struck down in 2007, arguing that Canada failed to define the US as a safe place for asylum seekers. This decision was turned over by a strong federal appeal.
In 2017, lawyers filed a fresh lawsuit after the election of the former president, Trump, 2017, who promised to tighten immigration. They also provided evidence where migrants were held in detention and some were denied, counsel.
After this lawsuit was declared successful, the law was repealed again in 2020 after proving that the US would detain migrants. But Ottawa appealed again and was successful, saying that this evidence wasn’t enough to prove the point.
Irregularities in Canada have been a regular thing, which decreased during the pandemic but has increased since then. A parliamentary committee has claimed to probe the matter.
Canada and the US share the world’s longest border of approximately 8,891 km (5,525 miles).
