| Short Title: | Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act |
| Caption: | Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act |
| Long Title: | An Act to Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the Marine Transportation Security Act and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act. |
| Citation: | S.C. 2012, c. 17 |
| Royal Assent: | June 28, 2012 |
| Bill: | Bill C-31 |
| Introduced By: | MP Jason Kenney |
| Enacted By: | House of Commons of Canada |
| 1St Reading: | February 16, 2012 |
| 2Nd Reading: | March 23, 2012 |
| Conf Committee Passed: | May 14, 2012 |
| 3Rd Reading: | June 11, 2012 |
| Bill2: | Bill C-31 |
| Enacted By2: | Senate of Canada |
| 1St Reading2: | June 11, 2012 |
| 2Nd Reading2: | June 13, 2012 |
| Conf Committee Passed2: | June 21, 2012 |
| 3Rd Reading2: | June 27, 2012 |
| Status: | current |
Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act (French: Loi visant à protéger le système d’immigration du Canada), or Bill C-31, is an act of the 41st Canadian Parliament - sponsored by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney.
Introduced on 16 February 2012 and receiving Royal Assent on 28 June 2012,[1] Kenney claimed that the bill is necessary to protect the refugee system, and that it would address the number of "bogus refugees" and claimants from European Union democracies.[2] As such, the Act purposed to amend Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Balanced Refugee Reform Act, Marine Transportation Security Act, and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act.
The following changes were made by the bill:
Don Davies criticized the bill, saying that it broke the compromise previously reached within the government and that it "puts too much power in the hands of the minister."[3]
Amnesty International, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and the Canadian Council for Refugees called for the withdrawal of the bill, claiming that it has provisions that would give "Ministers broad, unfettered and unprecedented powers," and would:[4]
…arbitrarily detain groups of refugees; keep parents, children and spouses apart for years; undermine the fairness of the refugee claim and protection process; introduce the use of biometrics; and authorize the stripping of permanent residence from refugees…Human Rights Watch also criticized the bill, saying that "[s]ubjecting 16- and 17-year-old children to mandatory, unreviewable detention backtracks on Canada’s commitments to children," and that "[w]e believe it is impossible to make a blanket determination that any country is safe for everyone and would never produce a refugee."[5]