A man turns enters an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Burlington, Mass., on Oct. 20. The Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. took effect in 2004.Brian Snyder/Reuters
Former Liberal foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy says Canada should pull out of a long-standing refugee pact with the United States that leads to most asylum seekers arriving at the Canadian border being turned back.
Mr. Axworthy, who is standing down as chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council on Thursday, said in an interview that President Donald Trump’s erosion of the rights of migrants in the U.S. means the country should no longer be considered a safe country for Canada to return asylum seekers to.
The Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. took effect in 2004 and was later expanded to include not just official ports of entry but the entire land border. Under its terms, asylum seekers must claim refugee protection in the first of the two countries they arrive in.
Most asylum seekers will be sent back if they arrive at the Canadian border after having first gone to the U.S., although there are exceptions, including for people facing the death penalty.
Mr. Axworthy said Canada no longer has shared values with the U.S. under Mr. Trump. He said that “evidence is produced daily on every American newscast” that it is no longer a safe country for asylum seekers to return to.
“I mean, massive deportations without any due process. Clearly, major restrictions on who can come, a system in which there is virtually no appeal. The whole process of law has been shelved, if not totally put in the dumpster,” he said.
Canadian immigration lawyers earlier this year questioned whether the United States should be considered a safe place for people fleeing persecution, and the federal government is facing legal challenges to the agreement with the U.S.
The lawyers said Mr. Trump’s executive orders that make it easier to deport or detain migrants undermine their rights to such an extent that Canada should halt returning asylum seekers to the U.S.
The Trump administration has also revoked hundreds of visas, including those of international students, and increased deportations and detentions of migrants.
Mr. Axworthy, who served as Liberal immigration minister and foreign minister under prime minister Jean Chrétien, noted that Mr. Trump had given refugee status to some white Afrikaners on the grounds of racial persecution, a claim denied by the South African government.
The President has also rolled back the rights of transgender and non-binary residents, including declaring that the U.S. government will only recognize the male and female sex, and removing the option to use X as a gender marker on official government documents, including passports.
Mr. Axworthy, who has chaired the World Refugee & Migration Council since it was established in 2017, said that “it’s a mistake to be changing a lot of our policies because of the Trump pressure.”
Ottawa is aiming to restrict access to asylum hearings through a border-security bill, which had to be slimmed down and revamped after criticism from opposition MPs and civil-liberties groups. It would also enable the Immigration Department to cancel visa applications en masse.
The Blue Water Bridge border crossing in Point Edward, Ont., in October. Canadian immigration lawyers have questioned whether the U.S. should be considered a safe place for people fleeing persecution.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images
The bill was brought in after pressure from Mr. Trump to bolster security at the border and curb illegal immigration to the U.S.
Mr. Axworthy said he was dismayed that Canada in its immigration levels plan, published in last week’s budget, is cutting back on the number of refugees that can be sponsored to come here.
As immigration minister between 1993 and 1996, he said, he got the sponsorship program going and “Canadians felt involved,” sponsoring tens of thousands of refugees.
He said Canada is “buying into reducing the numbers” of refugees, even though displaced persons are being forced from their home countries because of conflicts or natural disasters. He said this country has a responsibility to help.
While foreign affairs minister, Mr. Axworthy highlighted the plight of child soldiers in Africa, backed the foundation of the International Criminal Court and promoted a “human security agenda,” which included the Ottawa Treaty, a global pact banning anti-personnel land mines.
He said Justin Trudeau’s government had “made some serious mistakes” on immigration, including listening to the Century Initiative, a non-profit think tank co-founded by Dominic Barton with an ultimate goal of increasing Canada’s population to 100 million by the end of the century.
“The Trudeau government bought that and then doubled the numbers, but they didn’t double the investments in housing or health or education,” he said. “It was more people, but no support systems.”
“I think there was a very significant and serious policy error,” he said. “The present government, they’re trying to fix it in a piecemeal kind of [way], rather than sitting back and saying, let’s do a kind of a wholesale reckoning.”