Skip to main content

Immigration minister to give criteria for denying entry to Canada

Jason Kenney to table details of bill that would give more power to immigration minister

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he'll soon give Parliament more information about a proposed power for the minister to deny people entry into Canada even if they don't have a serious criminal record.   
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he'll soon give Parliament more information about a proposed power for the minister to deny people from entering Canada even if they don't have a serious criminal record.
The power is included in Bill C-43, legislation that would give sweeping powers to the minister of immigration. MPs will vote Tuesday night on whether to send the bill to committee for study.
The power, known as negative discretion, would allow the immigration minister to deny entry to Canada for a non-citizen who may promote hatred or violence. The minister can currently deny entry to a foreign national based on criminality or national security reasons.
Kenney says he plans to go to the immigration committee with a list of criteria the department would use in deciding if someone is inadmissible to Canada. He also plans to ask opposition MPs on the committee for advice on striking "the right balance."
"I don't want the current, or any future, government abusing this kind of power to exclude from Canada peoples whose views may be contentious or politically incorrect," Kenney said Tuesday, speaking to reporters in a teleconference from the United Kingdom.
"But I do think in certain extreme cases there are people who might otherwise be admissible whose views are so extreme and so potentially violent that we want to be able to exclude them. And that's really the balance that we've been trying to look for."

Opposition MPs concerned about power

Opposition MPs have said they're worried about giving the minister so much power. NDP immigration critic Jinny Sims said last month that the party has serious concerns about it.
"This is not against Jason Kenney the individual. No immigration minister should have this much power," Sims said.
Kenney says the UK, U.S. Australia and New Zealand allow for negative discretion.
"We're not looking at some broad generalized power to prevent the admission of people to Canada whose political opinions we disagree with, but rather those whose hateful attitudes, if given expression in Canada, could potentially lead to hateful actions or violence," Kenney said.
The bill, which the government titled Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals, would ease the way to deport refugees, permanent residents and visitors for "serious criminality," crimes where the punishment is six months or more in jail.
Other proposed changes include:
  • Ending appeals to those with foreign convictions for crimes that would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in Canada.
  • Denying entry to Canada to those with a family member inadmissible for security and human rights reasons or organized crime connections, even if that family member isn't travelling with them.
  • A five-year inadmissibility period for lying on immigration applications.
  • Mandatory CSIS interviews if requested.
  • Reporting conditions for those under deportation orders.
  • Automatic inadmissibility for non-Canadians and permanent residents for acts of espionage or acts against Canada's interests.
Read the full story here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Siege - A Poem By Ahmad Faraz Against The Dictatorship Of Zia Ul Haq

Related Posts: 1.  Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah Want Pakistan To Be A Theocracy Or A Secular State? 2. The Relationship Between Khadim & Makhdoom In Pakistan 3. Battle for God; Battleground Pakistan - a time has finally come to call a spade a spade 4. Pakistan - Facing Contradictory Strategic Choices In An Uncertain Region 5. Pakistan, Islamic Terror & General Zia-Ul-Haq 6. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 7. A new social contract in Pakistan between the Pakistani Federation and its components 8. Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers 9. Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ? 10. Balochistan - Troubles Of A Demographic Nature

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat . Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital and two cars packed with explosives were found in in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh- based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the " Indian Mujahideen. " Several TV news stations received an email five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message repo

Mir Chakar Khan Rind - A Warrior Hero Of Baluchistan & Punjab Provinces of Pakistan

By Sikander Hayat The areas comprising the state of Pakistan have a rich history and are steeped in the traditions of martial kind. Tribes which are the foundation stone of Pakistan come from all ethnic groups of Pakistan either they be Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan or Punjabi. One of these men of war & honour were Mir Chakar Khan Rind. He is probably the most famous leader coming out of Baloch ethnic group of Pakistan. Mir Chakar Khan Rind or Chakar-i-Azam (1468 – 1565 ) was a Baloch king and ruler of Satghara in (Southern Pakistani Punjab) in the 15th century. He is considered a folk hero of the Baloch people and an important figure in the Baloch epic Hani and Sheh Mureed. Mir Chakar lived in Sibi in the hills of Balochistan and became the head of Rind tribe at the age of 18 after the death of his father Mir Shahak Khan. Mir Chakar's kingdom was short lived because of a civil war between the Lashari and Rind tribes of Balochistan. Mir Chakar and Mir Gwaharam Khan Lashari, hea