Removal from Canada
| Author | Martin Jones - Sasha Baglay |
| Profession | Centre for Refugee Studies, York University - Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies, University of Ontario Institute of Technology |
| Pages | 323-347 |
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CHAP TER 12
REMOVAL FROM
CANADA
A. OVERVIEW
Similar to immigration arrest a nd detention, removal can be applied
only to foreign nationals and per manent residents. It is used as a tool to
protect Canada’s security a nd the Canadian public from dangerous per-
sons and to expel those who are no longer entitled to stay in Canada.
While foreign nationals can b e removed once their authorization to
be in Canada e xpires or is cancelled due to inadmissibility, permanent
residents may be subject to removal only on grounds of decept ion, non-
compliance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), or
such ser ious grounds of ina dmis sibilit y as sec urity, viol ations of i nter-
national or human rights, or organi zed or serious criminality. In such a
case, these g rounds are used as a ba sis to strip the per manent resident
of her status as such and subject her to removal on that ba sis. Con-
vention refugees and persons i n need of protection are shielded from
removal by the principle of non-refoulement, rega rdless of whether they
became permanent residents or not.1 Unsuccessful refugee claimants,
who by definition do not enjoy such protection, can be removed once
refugee determination and judicial review processe s are completed.2
1Immigration and Ref ugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, s. 115 [IRPA].
2 In some cases, r emoval may be affected before t he completion of judicial review;
please see the d iscussion of stays of remova l in this chapter and Chapte r 10 for
further di scussion of the circum stances in which this m ay be the case.
REFUGEE LAW324
The removal process can be fairly lengthy and complex. First, the
government must have the legal authority to remove the individual.
This is normally accompli shed through the issuance of a removal order.
Second, removal must comply with the general obligations of non-re-
foulement of refugees and the prohibition of refoulement to torture as
well as various other st atutory stays of removal t hat may be in place.
Canada has e stablished the Pre-Removal R isk Assessment (PRRA) as
the mechanism to en sure compliance with the non-refoulement obliga-
tions. The PRRA is a proces s by which the risk of persec ution, risk
of torture, and/or risk to li fe an applicant will face if removed from
Canada are considered pr ior to her removal. Thirdly, the person facing
removal must have a right to enter a destination country; that is, t he
destination countr y must agree to accept her. Fourthly, a person who is
subject to removal usually must be in pos session of the documents re-
quired for travel (specifically, those required for admission to the des-
tination country). Given that states are usually only willing to admit
their own nationals or permanent residents, arranging for the removal
of stateless persons can be particul arly difficult.
These stages in the removal of fa iled refugee claimants bear a re-
semblance to the removal of other foreign national s. However, as will be
seen, each stage can have both odd peculia rities and ext ra significa nce
because of the status of an individual a s a failed refugee clai mant. This
chapter will di scuss each of the core elements of the removal process in
the sequence outlined above: the var ious categories of removal orders;
stays of removal; PRRA s; and the making of travel arrangements.
B. REMOVAL ORDERS
When a person makes a refugee cla im in Canada, he is issued a “condi-
tional” removal order. Depending on the specific grounds of i nadmissi-
bility upon which the order is based, t he removal order is issued either
by an immigrat ion officer or the Immigration Division. The mere fact
of making a refugee claim doe s not result in the removal order. Rather,
collateral facts related to or ar ising from the mak ing of a refugee claim
are most commonly the basis of t he inadmis sibility allegations. These
grounds include the inabil ity to financial ly support himself while in
Canada3 and non-compliance with the IR PA’s requirement that as an
individual seeking to remain indefinitely in Canada he should be in
3IRPA, above note 1, s. 39.
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