Canada Border Services Agency

heavy handed: The report by the University of Toronto International Human Rights Program finds that Canada Border Services Agency has become more heavy handed in dealing with migrants with little or no accountability, according to Brandon Sun. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld TORONTO - Canada rising detention of non-criminal foreigners in maximum-security prisons amounts to arbitrary, cruel and inhumane treatment that violates international obligations, a disturbing new report concludes. Canada rising detention of non-criminal foreigners in maximum-security prisons amounts to arbitrary, cruel and inhumane treatment that violates international obligations, a disturbing new report concludes. The report by the University of Toronto International Human Rights Program finds that Canada Border Services Agency has become more heavy handed in dealing with migrants with little or no accountability. It contains harrowing profiles of detainees imprisoned for as long as eight years who talk of a lack of access to support services, confinement in cold windowless cells, their despair. "They treat us like garbage," one inmate told researchers. "We had no rights at all." Figures show Canada detained more than 7,300 migrants at a cost of more than $50 million in 2013. Renu Mandhane, a criminal lawyer and the program executive director, said the report reveals "shocking gaps" in the rule of law. "A CBSA officer essentially has the discretion to determine that somebody should be held in maximum-security jail conditions," Mandhane said Wednesday in an interview. "It was really surprising to me...that decision was totally discretionary and also not subject to any rules." The report, called "We Have No Rights", concludes incarceration can have a catastrophic impact on migrants' mental health. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.