Why the Safe Third Country Agreement must go

Last July, Canada’s Federal Court judged as unconstitutional the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which allows Canada to send refugee-claimants at the Canada–U.S. border back to the United States, despite the risk they will be detained and eventually returned to their countries of origin without their refugee claims being assessed.

The Canadian government appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, which, this April, ruled in the government’s favour. It found “no evidence” that the treatment of returnees at the Canada-U.S. border “shocks the conscience,” a term referring to the legal test under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to determine whether a deportation is contrary to the principles of fundamental justice.
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