“We Have No Rights”: Arbitrary Imprisonment and Cruel Treatment of Migrants with Mental Health Issues in Canada

Produced by the International Human Rights Program in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.Every year thousands of non-citizens (“migrants”) are detained in Canada; in 2013, for example, over 7300 migrants were detained. Nearly one third of all detention occurs in a facility intended for a criminal population. Migrants detained in provincial jails are not currently serving a criminal sentence, but are effectively serving hard time. Our research indicates that detention is sometimes prolonged, and can drag on for years. Imprisonment exacerbates existing mental health issues and often creates new ones, including suicidal ideation. Nearly one-third of all detention occurs in a facility intended for a criminal population, while the remaining occurs in dedicated immigration holding centres (IHCs) in Toronto (195 beds), Montreal (150 beds), and Vancouver (24 beds, for short stays of less than 72 hours). Nearly 60% of all detention occurs in Ontario. A Canadian Red Cross Society report notes that, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) held 2247 migrants in detention in Ontario provincial jails in 2012. Unfortunately, more up-to-date statistics are not publicly available. Immigration detention is costly. In 2011-2012, the last year for which there is publicly-available information, CBSA spent nearly $50,000,000 on detention-related activities. In 2013, CBSA paid the provinces over $26,000,000 to detain migrants in provincial jails – over $20,000,000 of that was paid to the province of Ontario. CBSA states that detention in a provincial jail costs $259 per day, per detainee. This report finds that Canada’s detention of migrants with mental health issues in provincial jails is a violation of binding international human rights law and constitutes arbitrary detention; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; discrimination on the basis of disability; violates the right to health; and violates the right to an effective remedy. We find that migrants with mental health issues are routinely detained despite their vulnerable status. Some detainees have no past criminal record, but are detained on the basis that they are a flight risk, or because their identity cannot be confirmed. Due to the over-representation of people with mental health issues in Canada’s criminal justice system, some migrants with mental health issues are detained on the basis of past criminality – this is after serving their criminal sentence, however minor the underlying offence. Some spend more time in jail on account of their immigration status than the underlying criminal conviction