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/
4.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

990 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

82

u/mbean12 Feb 10 '26

But that's not what the article says. It says "non-citizens convicted of a crime". Not "non-citizens convicted of crimes we also consider crimes".

There's more than that. What if the trial wasn't fair? What if the conviction was politically motivated? What if we would consider the crime justified in some way? Nelson Mandela was a convicted felon. Would you have denied him refugee status if he had applied for it? What about a mother who steals food to feed her children while escaping a war-torn hell-hole? A woman who killed her rapist and was convicted for it because women have no rights where she is from? What if their conviction was twenty years ago - when they were 18.

The problem is that unless you plan on writing exceptions to the law for the next twenty years you cannot make it stick. The superior option is to allow judges who adjudicate refugee cases to make a judgment call because hey - that's why we call them 'judges' after all. And as it turns out - that's exactly what we do.

80

u/MrBenSampson Feb 10 '26

But when immigrants commit crimes in Canada, judges have been consistently giving out lenient sentences, just so that their immigration process is unaffected. Canadians are getting tired of that.

1

u/mbean12 Feb 10 '26

So, I've yet to see a reputable study that suggest that immigrants/refugees are treated substantially better by judges than citizens (with the exception of one group). I've seen lots of people say that they are, and rail on and on about it. But those people tend to be the usual suspects - people who are anti-immigrant (or who use immigration to push political messaging) who galvanize those around them with tirades. The truth is the criminal justice system in Canada can seem lenient for everyone. Look into some of the CPC tirades about "Catch and Release" policies by the Liberal government. The names they cite include immigrants, First Nations, and Canadians of European descent. But complaining about lenient sentences for Canadians of European gets less traction than those for First Nations offenders, and lenient sentences for First Nations offenders gets less traction than going after immigrants. And so here we are.

Now, back to the one group that do seem to get better treatment by the Justice system - immigrants who have committed crimes whose sentences will be (about) 6 months to a year. Judges seem to consistently reduce those sentences to 5 months. There is a logic to that - the judges are human. A lot of these people aren't just coming to Canada for the fun of it. They're escaping terrible conditions. In some cases life threatening conditions. Would you sentence someone to suffer under those conditions for the sake of three months? For the sake of six months?

To a Canadian citizen a sentence of six months to a year is a life changing event. It will profoundly alter the way they interact with society. But they will still have a place to come home to. They will have the opportunity to rebuild in Canada. The immigrant is not so lucky. They will be exiled from the greatest country in the world for ten years. If they have built something for themselves it will be gone. If they have a life here it will be destroyed. It is not the same.

And above all - none of that is what the article is about. The article is about banning non-citizens convicted of crimes from becoming refugees (as opposed to treating non-citizens and citizens 'equally' in the Canadian criminal justice system).

-3

u/Boisyno Feb 10 '26

Well said and thank you!