OTTAWA — Senators on the social affairs committee wish to see immigration-related sections within the authorities’s border invoice, C-12, eliminated or considerably modified by the Senate nationwide safety committee.
The nationwide safety committee is answerable for tabling amendments, whereas the social affairs committee has carried out an in-depth examine of the invoice’s immigration measures.
That examine, obtained by The Canadian Press, says the committee heard from witnesses who warned the laws may 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 purposes.
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 embrace a sundown clause to require a parliamentary assessment.
The report was broadly welcomed by civil society teams who testified earlier than the Senate social affairs committee.
“When senators truly listened to the individuals who can be impacted by Invoice C-12 — after we have 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 embrace a change to the part within the laws that might bar individuals who first got here to Canada greater than a yr prior from submitting refugee claims. That part can be retroactive to June 24, 2020.
Immigration Minister Lena 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 below this ineligibility measure — about 19,000 of fifty,000 purposes.
Witnesses warned the Senate social affairs committee that the present wording may 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 folks may nonetheless apply for a pre-removal danger evaluation in the event that they sought asylum below these circumstances.
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 susceptible folks, equivalent 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 number of immigration paperwork — together with everlasting residency playing cards — which were 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 have been used to show away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
The committee recommends including an modification to require “strong parliamentary oversight” to watch the usage of these proposed powers.
The social affairs committee additionally recommends that the federal government give the Immigration and Refugee Board further assets to assist it assessment refugee claims. The IRB presently 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 info of migrants, everlasting residents and naturalized residents with different federal departments, provinces, territories and international 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 committee desires the wording modified to exempt everlasting residents and naturalized residents from information-sharing and to introduce a compulsory privateness commissioner assessment.
The Senate nationwide safety committee is anticipated to conduct a clause-by-clause examine of the invoice Monday; amendments will be launched throughout this stage.
The invoice has a second studying vote deadline of Feb. 26.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 23, 2026.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press