Rally for Refugee Rights – June 19th at noon in Central Park

Community advocates and supporters in Winnipeg have organized a rally at Central Park next week. If you have time, please come. Alastair Clarke has agreed to speak at the event regarding the Safe Third Country Agreement and the recent amendments. In particular, these changes have closed off much of the border from genuine refugees who are seeking to live safely in Canada. Thank you to Louise Simbandumwe, Co-Director at SEED Winnipeg, Abdikheir Ahmed, Executive Director at Aurora Family Therapy Centre and everyone at Immigration Matters in Canada Coalition for organizing this rally.

We have published numerous accounts and given numerous interviews to the media on the injustice and constitutional violations in the USA. Refugee claimants in the USA are regularly detained for months – or years – while their claim for asylum is being processed. They do not have access to their documents. They do not have access to lawyers. Federal Court Justice MacDonald reviewed 1000s of pages of evidence and agreed the STCA violates the Charter.

We are calling for the Liberal government to suspend the STCA until these issues have been resolved, as ordered by the Court. In my view, the Federal Court of Appeal’s (FCA) decision is divorced from reality and utterly fails to consider the vast amount of relevant evidence. In its decision, the appeal judge held there was not sufficient evidence. This is bonkers. The appeals judge, Justice David Stratus (who, incidentally, was Mr Clarke’s Advanced Constitutional Law professor at Queen’s University in 2006-2007) fails to understand these issues. While Mr Clarke continues to have respect for Justice Stratus, the decision from the FCA is poorly drafted, poorly reasoned and completely misses the point. Our esteemed colleagues have appealed the FCA decision to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) and leave was granted. Oral arguments were heard in OCT 2022 and there is no sign of a decision from Canada’s highest court. Based on the recent scandals involving Justice Brown, it is not clear when the Court will make the final decision.

In the meantime, we urge Winnipegers to attend the rally on June 19th. Please come and show the Government of Canada that you agree we need to protect the rights of refugee claimants.

Staff at CIL will be at the rally on June 19th. We hope to see you there!