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Canada-US Asylum Pact in Doubt After Ottawa Court Ruling

Craig McCulloch

   VANCOUVER - The clock is ticking for Canada's withdrawal from an
   agreement with the United States on cross-border asylum-seekers. A
   recent Canadian court ruling that the Safe Third Country Agreement is
   unlawful has been suspended for six months, prompting debate on what
   the next steps should be.

   In a 60-page ruling, Justice Ann Marie McDonald of the Federal Court of
   Canada said the Safe Third Country Agreement violated the Canadian
   Charter of Rights and Freedoms in failing to guarantee "the right to
   life, liberty and the security of the person."

   The 16-year-old agreement stipulates that any asylum-seeker entering
   Canada or the United States must file a petition in the first country
   of arrival. As such, people who flee a third country and attempt to
   cross a border checkpoint from the United States into Canada, or vice
   versa, are returned.

   Ethiopia native

   McDonald found that refugee claimants returned to the United States are
   "detained as a penalty." She referred to one claimant, Nadir Mustefa,
   originally from Ethiopia, who after being returned to the United States
   from Canada alleged she was held in solitary confinement for a week and
   fed pork despite telling U.S. prison guards she is Muslim and could not
   eat that type of food.

   Defending the bilateral accord, the Canadian government argued that
   those being returned from Canada to the U.S. have access to a fair
   detention review -- an argument McDonald rejected.

   The decision was suspended for six months to give the Canadian
   government a chance to respond, possibly with new legislation or a type
   of bilateral agreement with the United States. The decision can also be
   appealed.

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