Any Immigration Detainee Deserves Better!
Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) solution to ensuring those detained by Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) placed on an Immigration Hold receive due process is a total failure! Anyone detained deserves much better representation then what LAO is offering.
The Toronto Star article claimed that this “Pilot Program” was a response to the impact of persons incarcerated during the pandemic. Plus, the historically low levels of representation in Ontario.
THIS IS ALL ABOUT HELPING “ONLY LAWYERS” FIND CLIENTS DURING A PANDEMIC!
The Nicholas Keung article quotes a Queens University Law Professor Sharry Aiken who is concerned of those arrested may not have a functional cell phone if detained directly off from an airplane. That they may not have a local number (of a Lawyer).
Most who may end up being detained at an airport are offered an option to withdraw their request to enter Canada and are put back on the plane to return home. If the traveler request to make an asylum claim and ends up detained places where one is detained have access to phones and other detainee’s who will have Immigration Counsels phone numbers.
After years of working in Provincial Jails, representing the Minister of Immigration at tens of thousands of detention reviews, and running three different Immigration Holding Centre’s, I fail to see how this could be a concern!
Why in this “Pilot Program” is there no mention that it includes paid representation by Law Society of Ontario “Paralegals or RCIC’s”? LSO Paralegals can represent those detained by CBSA! Could not LAO save funds by also allowing experienced Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants to bill LAO?
WHY NOW, IS THERE SUCH A CONCERN?
There has been no duty counsel representing those detained on an immigration hold in Ontario for 30 years. Airports and borders have basically been closed all during the pandemic and CBSA is doing their utmost NOT to put anyone into detention if they can find an alternative. Most who make an asylum claim are released due to the time it will take for them to have their refugee claim heard. The number of detained persons at the IHC in Toronto is the lowest it has been for years.
Which type or person gets detained?
Those charged or convicted of a criminal offence,
Those out of status for years,
Students, workers, and visitors that have overstayed for years,
Persons who have violated a previous release order condition,
People who have NO SHOWED for removal or interviews when ordered,
Ones that CBSA cannot establish identity,
Persons deemed a danger to the public,
LAO states that the IRB audit citing that Ontario had a lower rate of representation by counsel at detention review hearings, compared to other provinces. That only 38% of detained persons were represented but if Counsel knows there is no chance of obtaining a release order why charge the client? Ontario has the highest number of detained persons so the statistics are in question. What needs to be looked at the average stay in detention was only 13.9 days. Subtracting two days approximately for the Immigration Division to even be notified of the detained person detention does not seem excessive. The other issue that has to be considered is cost! Those working for cash for years may not have the funds required to retain Immigration Lawyers.
Aviva Basman of Legal Aid Ontario who is a manager at the Refugee Law Office, which administers the project stated in the Star article “LAO is committed to serving people in detention who need our help, and to ensuring that immigration detainees have access to fair and meaningful detention reviews,” Where was LAO for the last thirty years.
“MEANINGFUL DETENTION REVIEWS”!
The “PILOT PROGRAM” will offer training and mentorship to the lawyers doing detention work. Will these Immigration Detention Representation Lawyers even meet with their clients before their actual detention review. Is three hours of billing sufficent to contact potential bondspersons to arrange them to be present for the actual detention review?
Trust me, I’m a brand new Lawyer, I know nothing about the Immigration Act or the IRPR but I’m here to represent you!
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/03/23/many-immigration-detainees-fight-for-their-freedom-with-no-lawyer-a-new-ontario-program-aims-to-change-that.html?fbclid=IwAR0TehiBKEtsL-ysloU9fkl2h5X_byDifJSdSUoZ6gl9kn28Wpjbq9KdOQQ
https://www.legalaid.on.ca/in-briefs/new-program-to-enhance-legal-aid-services-for-immigration-detainees/
