In Defence of Invisiblized Noncitizens: Seeking Justice in the Canadian Immigration Detention System

Abstract

The Canadian immigration detention system is indefinitely holding noncitizens embodying precarious statuses without setting time limits to their deprivation of liberty. Presided over by Immigration Division board members, detention review hearings are supposed to be a means through which they can seek release. This thesis demonstrates, however, that immigration detainees have severely limited access to justice through these quasi-judicial proceedings where the evidentiary burden is shifted on to them. They face overlapping challenges in seeking legal representation while held in immigration holding centres and provincial prisons, including lack of information on their right to counsel, limited Legal Aid funding, and language barriers. Using interviews with lawyers and former detainees, and non-participant observation of detention reviews, this thesis argues immigration detainees are largely invisiblized by their limited access to justice, which is fostered by the Canadian sovereign state and its highly securitized political context that is particularly wary of racialized noncitizens. vi CHAPTER 5. DISCRETION IN DETENTION REVIEW HEARINGS .

Evaluating Ontario immigration detention centres through the lens of non-governmental organizations

“…Thus, it leaves advocates being at a loss when being able to provide guidance throughout the process because there is no structural integrity to detention reviews. Coligado (2018) study echoes these findings when legal professionals question the quality of the IRB members discretion and even point to the possibility of their decision being influenced due to the highly racialized makeup of the detainee population. The ability for administrative officials to continually place a detainee in detention based on their discretion becomes problematic when that discretion lies within a system that gives space for arbitrary punishment.…”

Evaluating Ontario immigration detention centres through the lens of non-governmental organizations

“…Thus, it leaves advocates being at a loss when being able to provide guidance throughout the process because there is no structural integrity to detention reviews. Coligado (2018) study echoes these findings when legal professionals question the quality of the IRB members discretion and even point to the possibility of their decision being influenced due to the highly racialized makeup of the detainee population. The ability for administrative officials to continually place a detainee in detention based on their discretion becomes problematic when that discretion lies within a system that gives space for arbitrary punishment.…”