The Federal Court of Canada has found, for a second time, that the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement is unconstitutional. It violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the right to life, liberty and security of the person.  Under the STCA, refugee...

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2   13 May 2020 Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Re: Demonstrating Global Leadership on Refugees and Migrants in light of COVID-19 We write this Open Letter to you, amidst the unprecedented...

Amnesty International is disappointed in Canada’s decision to renew a measure banning refugee claimants from crossing into Canada from the US. Some claimants seeking to enter Canada have already been turned back to an uncertain fate in the US, potentially in violation of Canada’s international...

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT REFUGEE PROTECTION IN CANADA? MYTH: Most refugees just want to go live in North America and Europe. FACT: Most refugee claimants seek protection in a neighbouring country. Since 2014, Turkey has hosted the largest refugee population (3.7 million people), almost all of whom...

Jaya Bordeleau-Cass and André Capretti are the 2019-2020 Public Interest Articling Fellows at Amnesty International Canada. They will be posting updates about the Safe Third Country Agreement hearing throughout the week. The brief and frustrating answer: it’s unclear what it takes.  Submissions...

Today marked the first day of a week-long hearing, in which the applicants – Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, and individual refugee claimants – are challenging the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (the STCA) in Federal...

Amnesty International is proudly supporting a new project, Operation #NotForgotten, which will sponsor up to 200 refugees living on the isolated Nauru and Manus Islands.  The campaign is an initiative of Canada Caring Society and MOSAIC, which are working with partners in Australia to raise $3.3...

Amnesty International joins others here today in welcoming Vanessa Rodel and her daughter to Canada as refugees resettled through private sponsorship.  It is a happy end to a search for safety that began when Ms. Rodel fled from the Philippines in 2002; and took an entirely unexpected turn in 2013...

TORONTO, March 25, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ – This evening a plane carrying Vanessa Rodel and her 7-year-old daughter Keana will land at Toronto’s Pearson airport. It is the partial culmination of a saga that began in 2013 when Rodel, her daughter and five other asylum seekers sheltered...

Amnesty International welcomes the initiative of the Canadian government, and non-governmental partners Rainbow Railroad and Russian LGBT Network, which has brought dozens of gay men from the semi-autonomous Russian republic of Chechnya to Canada as government-assisted refugees. This unique...

Amnesty International was represented in this case by Lorne Waldman (2006, 2008) and Andrew Brouwer, Heather Neufeld, Leigh Salsberg, Michael Bossin, Erin Simpson, and Kate Webster (2019). WHAT IS THIS CASE ABOUT? On 5 December 2002, the governments of Canada and the United States of America...

In an Open Letter to Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Amnesty International’s Canadian and US Sections, representing close to 2 million people in the two countries, have today called on the Canadian government immediately and urgently to rescind...