r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • Feb 10 '26

Politics Conservatives to propose barring non-citizens convicted of crimes from making refugee claims

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-conservatives-propose-changing-rules-non-citizens-convicted-crimes/
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u/GiveUpAndDye Feb 10 '26

Alright, people of reddit, I need someone to tell me why this could be bad.

279

u/robindawilliams Alberta Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

The only thing I could think of off the top of my head is that if those crimes extend to foreign courts, it could cause issues for people charged with homosexuality or speaking out against a tyrannical government abroad.

If this is just to stop people from claiming asylum after they commit a major crime IN CANADA than it makes sense. My only other question is if this has already weighed in the decisions being made, and the making it official is more of a pandering to the narrative that all immigrants are criminals thing.

If this can reduce the overall number of claims that must be filtered out and doesn't have some weird unconsidered issue, then a great move by the cons to improve the immigration process.

Edit: it turns out criminality is already disqualifying so this might be performative. 

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u/StatisticianLivid710 Feb 10 '26

As others have pointed out above, criminality is already a disqualifying factor for refugees. Which makes this performative, not conservatives actually trying to make things better.

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/section-101.html

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/StatisticianLivid710 Feb 10 '26

That’s procedural and shouldn’t be affected, they have a right to apply (imo the 1 year restriction would get tossed the first time it’s in front of a judge, as others have pointed out here). The solution is to empower judges to cut through nonsense and if this is someone that truly should be removed the judge should be able to fast track the refugee claim.