Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from different political events got here collectively to boost the Delight flag on Parliament Hill.
However an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the U.S says the federal authorities’s new border regulation is placing folks liable to being despatched again to international locations the place they face persecution.
Devon Matthews, Rainbow Railroad’s chief program officer, mentioned her group is anxious about its working relationship with Ottawa because the federal authorities reduces the variety of refugees it admits and cuts the group’s funding.
She mentioned it’s additionally alarmed by a brand new regulation requiring that refugee claims be made inside a yr of the claimant’s first arrival in Canada.
“It has nothing to do with the explanation why somebody could have waited or why somebody doesn’t meet the one-year bar,” Matthews advised The Canadian Press.
“It really is only only a technical eligibility requirement that doesn’t serve to truly give the chance for the particular person to talk to the intricacies of why they might have needed to wait.”
A former Center Japanese worldwide scholar who lived as an brazenly homosexual man in Canada is amongst these left in limbo by the brand new regulation.
The previous scholar advised The Canadian Press he filed a refugee declare after images of his time right here in Canada had been found as soon as he returned dwelling, placing his security in danger.
However he mentioned that as a result of he studied in Canada for two-and-a-half years beginning in 2022, he has been advised his refugee declare is ineligible below the brand new border regulation, C-12.
The Canadian Press has agreed to not title him or his dwelling nation as a consequence of dangers dealing with his relations nonetheless there.
“I used to be supporting the LGBTQ neighborhood and I used to be in loads of occasions and a few tales from social media that leaked out in my society again there,” he mentioned.
“So some incidents and … some footage had fallen into unhealthy folks’s fingers and so they threatened to tell the police and to beat me up. So it occurred greater than as soon as, and when the final time occurred I felt that I can’t reside like that and I might be residing in concern.”
A number of Center Japanese international locations have morality legal guidelines that punish LGBTQ folks with jail phrases. The refugee claimant mentioned his household would additionally face social and financial repercussions due to his orientation.
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“Once you get found as a LGBTQ particular person, that’s it, that’s the tip of your life. You possibly can’t work, you could be arrested in your house,” he mentioned. “And naturally, the scandal for the household, as a result of it’s not one thing that’s accepted.
“So I ran as a result of if that occurred, I’d spend my life in jail. Or even when they didn’t put me in jail for a very long time, that’s it for my profession, that’s it for my life.”
He mentioned his refugee declare was continuing easily and had been permitted for file assessment — a much less intensive examination for low-risk refugee claims.
However when C-12 handed earlier this yr, he turned considered one of roughly 30,000 individuals who obtained letters saying their refugee declare could not be eligible as a result of they first entered Canada greater than a yr earlier than making their declare.
The one-year rule applies to refugee claims made on or after June 3, 2025 and retroactively to first arrivals on or after June 24, 2020.
Whereas refugee claims filed by folks on this state of affairs won’t be despatched to the Immigration and Refugee Board for assessment, they’re nonetheless eligible for a pre-removal danger evaluation, or PRRA. The PRRA has a traditionally low approval charge as a result of it tends to be the first enchantment avenue for rejected claims on the IRB.
The PRRA course of is primarily paper-based however interviews could be requested if an officer wants extra data.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab advised a Senate committee listening to in February that when it’s clear folks ought to be capable to keep in Canada primarily based on documented proof, “they get a ‘sure’ immediately.”
The federal government has mentioned it launched the one-year rule partially as a result of some folks had been making asylum claims so as to keep in Canada after their momentary visas expired.
Diab advised the Senate committee that 37 per cent of refugee claims made between June 3, 2025 and Oct. 31, 2025 — roughly 19,000 paperwork — can be deemed ineligible below the one-year rule.
Suzy Newing, the Center Japanese former scholar’s lawyer, mentioned her consumer’s ineligibility is being challenged in courtroom on constitutional grounds arguing that he has a proper to an oral listening to — which isn’t assured within the PRRA course of — and anti-discrimination provisions.
She mentioned there are a number of explanation why an LGBTQ+ particular person may not make a refugee declare inside a yr of first arriving in Canada.
“For instance, maybe they got here to Canada earlier than recognizing or expressing or coming to phrases with their sexual orientation, after which they begin to categorical that right here. That may not essentially occur inside one yr of coming to Canada,” Newing mentioned.
“They may have recognized (their orientation) all alongside, however managed to cover it of their nation of origin. After which the one-year bar basically forces the timing for once they would come out to their relations, as a result of that’s usually when the danger materializes … when people would come out to their relations once they’re right here in Canada.”
Many Federal Courtroom challenges of refugee claims being deemed ineligible below the brand new regulation have been referred to file assessment, so a choose is anticipated to rule broadly on the constitutionality of the one-year rule.
The Center Japanese refugee claimant will now have to attend for both a PRRA or a courtroom determination to be taught whether or not he might be allowed to stay in Canada.
He mentioned that even when he’s allowed to remain, his belief in Canada has been shaken.
“Now I really feel like I’ve been attacked by everybody, by the federal government, by the Canadian folks and so they simply need folks to depart,” he mentioned.
“Kicking these folks out, you’re killing them as a result of they don’t seem to be returning again to reside fortunately and tremendous and every little thing. You’re pushing them again to their deaths.”
Matthews mentioned Rainbow Railroad noticed its largest-ever variety of requests for assist in 2025 — greater than 20,000, a 51 per cent improve over 2024. She mentioned the group is on monitor to obtain much more pleas for assist this yr.
Matthews mentioned Rainbow Railroad is contemplating growing its political activism in response.
