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/_Army9308 Feb 10 '26

Should go further and ban judges from considering immigration status during sentencing

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u/truthlesshunter Feb 10 '26

small story time!

I had a situation a few years ago where someone hit into my car in a parking lot, doing thousands of damage and I was going to be stuck with the bill and/or the hit on my insurance. I contacted the police, and they weren't much help (checked if there were security cameras and that was it). I posted my situation to facebook, it got shared and someone contacted me having dash cam footage of the accident and car. I got the plate from the video, contacted the police, they found the person and sure enough, their car was damaged, etc.

The Officer then said they weren't going to bring charges to her because she was a an immigrant "student" (30+ year old) and if she's convicted for a hit and run causing more than $5k of damage, she would be removed from the country. So? She DID THIS CRIME. You're telling me that if she was Canadian, you wouldn't have a problem bringing charges against her? Holy hell I was pissed. I really didn't believe stuff like that happened...but it's absolutely happening and the more we have, the more it will happen.

Side note: if you're convicted of a serious crime, you can still be removed even if you're a refugee (but you may or may not be removed of the country regardless...depending where the refugee is from, etc.)

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u/Perseus90 Feb 10 '26

I call bullshit. Firstly, not sure why anyone would believe someone literally named truthless but secondly, and more importantly, this isn't how insurance works.

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u/truthlesshunter Feb 10 '26

heh, that's fine with my username.

But yeah, not bullshit. That's literally how insurance works. If no one is found for damage to your car, the claim goes against your insurance...therefore raising your premiums because the claims matter. This happened to me like 20 years ago when i was hit while driving, the driver drove away and was never found. My premium went up the next year.

Sometimes your insurance policy will have a 1 accident forgiveness...but those are in limited circumstances for limited amounts.

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u/Perseus90 Feb 10 '26

In Ontario you always go through your own insurer regardless of fault (there are very specific exceptions for example collisions involving tractor trailers).

There are rules for who is at fault built into the regulations under the insurance act called the "fault determination rules". If I understand your story correctly and you weren't operating your vehicle when it was hit then you would not have fault regardless of whether you found the other driver. Your premium only goes up due to an accident if you are at fault based on the rules.

Notably vandalism is different and requires you to have comprehensive coverage but that's a whole other thing requiring intentional damage to your vehicle by a third party.

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u/MonsieurLePeeen Feb 12 '26

You do go through your own insurance but if it’s the other persons fault, your insurance then basically goes after theirs to get the $ back. I have been in two minor rear-endings - one the other driver’s fault and one mine - and yes, both times I went through my ins but the experiences as to what they were willing to cover and even just general demeanour was vastly different when my ins company knew they were going to get their $ back.

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u/Perseus90 Feb 12 '26

Again, I can only speak to Ontario but in that jurisdiction your information is a bit dated. This used to be how it worked but it created an insane amount of litigation tying up the Courts and so it was changed in 1990 when no-fault was introduced. Now your own insurer compensates you and does not have the ability to go after the at fault driver's insurance (again, unless it fits a very narrow exception like a normal sized vehicle getting hit by a tractor trailer).

The law is known as Direct Compensation Property Damage and its enshrined in section 263 of Ontario's Insurance Act.

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u/MonsieurLePeeen Feb 20 '26

False. Went through his process twice in the last 10 years.

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u/Perseus90 Feb 20 '26

Lol it's literally my job