The nationwide safety committee is liable for tabling amendments, whereas the social affairs committee has carried out an in-depth examine of the invoice’s immigration measures.
The nationwide safety committee started Monday with unbiased Senator Tony Dean studying a prolonged letter on behalf of Public Security Minister Gary Anandasangaree and Immigration Minister Lena Diab on the rationale for the invoice, responding to points raised within the social affairs committee examine.
The letter pressured that there’s bipartisan help for this invoice as solely “a handful” of MPs voted towards it and B.C. Premier David Eby mentioned it ought to be handed “directly” after alleged extortionists made asylum claims in that province.
That examine says the social affairs committee heard from witnesses who warned the laws might violate human rights and lacks procedural equity.
Invoice C-12 has sections targeted on immigration that take care of information-sharing and managing the asylum system. It additionally proposes giving the federal government new powers to change or cancel present immigration paperwork and functions.
The committee’s report says if the nationwide safety committee opts to not take away the sections on immigration, it ought to introduce extra strong parliamentary oversight to the laws and embody a sundown clause to require a parliamentary evaluation.
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The report was broadly welcomed by civil society teams who testified earlier than the Senate social affairs committee.
“When senators really listened to the individuals who can be impacted by Invoice C-12 — after we had been blocked from testifying within the Home — they heard how harmful it’s and known as for deletion of the immigration sections,” Karen Cocq, Migrant Rights Community spokesperson, mentioned in a media assertion.
The Senate committee report incorporates 9 different suggestions geared toward addressing questions raised by witness testimony.
They embody a change to the part within the laws that will bar individuals who first got here to Canada greater than a 12 months prior from submitting refugee claims. That part can be retroactive to June 24, 2020.
Diab advised the committee earlier this month that 37 per cent of asylum claims filed between June 3 and Oct. 31, 2025 can be disallowed underneath this ineligibility measure — about 19,000 of fifty,000 functions.
The letter from Diab and Anandasangaree says whereas asylum claims have dropped by one third in 2025 in comparison with 2024, extra nonetheless must be achieved to disincentivize misuse of the asylum system and new measures are wanted with plans to cut back non permanent visa volumes.
Witnesses warned the Senate social affairs committee that the present wording would possibly forestall somebody who got here to Canada as a child on a household trip from making a traditional asylum declare. The committee desires to see that one-year interval elevated to 5 years.
The federal government defended this timeline throughout committee hearings, saying individuals might nonetheless apply for a pre-removal threat evaluation in the event that they sought asylum underneath these situations.
Witnesses, together with the Canadian Bar Affiliation and Amnesty Worldwide, argued the laws would arrange a two-tier asylum system that wouldn’t assure in-person hearings for weak individuals, akin to members of the LGBTQ+ group and survivors of home violence.
The senators additionally reject making that part retroactive to June 24, 2020 and wish it made energetic as soon as the invoice receives Royal Assent.
The invoice proposes giving the federal government powers to cancel or modify a bunch of immigration paperwork — together with everlasting residency playing cards — which have been issued already or are within the authorities’s software stock if cupboard decides it’s within the public curiosity.
Authorities witnesses advised the committee this energy can be used to handle administrative errors, fraud and threats to public well being, public security or nationwide safety.
Different witnesses mentioned the broad “public curiosity” wording could possibly be used to justify discriminatory mass cancellations and cited how sweeping authorities orders had been used to show away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
The committee recommends including an modification to require “strong parliamentary oversight” to observe using these proposed powers.
The social affairs committee additionally recommends that the federal government give the Immigration and Refugee Board additional sources to assist it evaluation refugee claims. The IRB at present has a backlog of about 300,000 claims ready to be processed.
The invoice proposes giving the federal government energy to share the non-public data of migrants, everlasting residents and naturalized residents with different federal departments, provinces, territories and overseas governments.
The federal government advised the committee these powers are supposed to ease the executive burden of information-sharing and guarantee candidates get entry to companies.
The Senate social affairs committee desires the wording modified to exempt everlasting residents and naturalized residents from information-sharing and to introduce a compulsory privateness commissioner evaluation.
The invoice has a second studying vote deadline of Feb. 26.
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