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Disguised Prisons — Laval Refugee Detention Centre
Rev. Richard Renshaw, CSC, Montreal
Volume 34 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: March 27, 2020
Canada has a reputation for welcoming refugees. While this is partly true, there is a carefully crafted strategy for the selection of refugees and it is not based on the needs of refugees. Acceptable candidates are selected while still outside Canada according to norms that largely attend to Canadian economic needs. Those who show up at the border are much less welcome.
Canada has a reputation for welcoming refugees. While this is partly true, there is a carefully crafted strategy for the selection of refugees and it is not based on the needs of refugees. Acceptable candidates are selected while still outside Canada according to norms that largely attend to Canadian economic needs. Those who show up at the border are much less welcome.
About half the time these latter claimants are detained (imprisoned). This is usually because their documents are not in order, the Border Agent doesn’t believe their story or the Border Agent thinks they may not show up for their hearing. If there is any possible criminal background, they will be sent to a regular prison; otherwise they go to what is called a detention (or holding) centre. These centres are constructed and run in the same way as a medium security prison and managed by the Canadian Border Control Agency. The detention is indefinite – may go on for years – and can include whole families, including children.
Children Are Detained
In 2011 refugee prisoners in a number of centres across Canada began a hunger strike against their living conditions. It went on for several weeks. The government finally agreed to set aside $138 million to assure better conditions. It was agreed to build new facilities in Surrey (BC) and Laval (Quebec). Le May architects, in Montreal, were chosen as architects; Tisseur Construction, in Val David, Quebec, was named general contractor. Immediately following the last federal election, construction began in earnest and proceeded rapidly. It is supposed to be finished in 2021.
Much emphasis has been placed on the ecological and aesthetic aspects of the construction. Trees and plants will surround the building; there will be a play area for children. Everything is designed to make it look less like a prison – from the outside! Inside, it will have a standard prison structure with the latest in electronic surveillance.
Traumatic Experience
The experience of being detained is traumatic for most refugee claimants. They thought of Canada as a paradise where refugees were welcomed. They often know no one here and their first experience is one of prison without any understanding of how to deal with the prison or immigration bureaucracy. Nor, in many cases, do they have anyone to advise them.
Visiting those detained is a challenge. Other than one authorized organization that endorses all the norms established by the federal government, the only people allowed to visit are family or friends. Many have neither in Canada. Word gets passed around and in this way some people do get a visitor.
Conditions in the prison leave a lot to be desired. Husbands and wives are kept in separate sections for men and women. Children go with the women. Food is really basic. They are allowed an hour outside in a courtyard each day. Otherwise they are in their rooms, in groups of 4 or 5, or in a common room with a television and little else. Visitors have access only to a visiting room near the entrance. Medical attention is very limited and prisoners with medical conditions do not get adequate attention. A doctor is available only once a week; a visit to a hospital requires a real emergency. Many, if not most, detainees suffer from some level of depression.
Protests
Over the last year or two, we have protested in Montreal on the site of the current prison, on the site of the proposed prison as well as that of the architects and the general contractor. We have handed out flyers at various metro (subway) stations around the city. We have given numerous workshops, held press conferences and participated in marches organized by other groups. We have established contact with various groups across the country interested in this issue.
Ultimately there is rarely, if ever, any need to detain refugee claimants. They come from inhuman situations and want only to be able to contribute to and live in a society that treats them with respect. They are more than willing to cooperate and collaborate. It is highly unlikely that they will want to create problems here.
Should they “disappear” into society the Border Agents are quite able to find them. In fact, this isn’t even much of a problem because, without documents, the refugee is in a very precarious situation regarding health, education, social services and work. If they do manage to survive without documents, no major damage is done to society; it is more likely it is the refugees themselves who are at a disadvantage.
The anti-detention movement is asking only that refugees be welcomed and treated with respect. Rather than prisons for refugees, they should be given respect and immediate status.
Father Renshaw taught ethics at St. Thomas University in Fredericton in the 1960s before establishing Coady House as part of the Christian Intentional Community Network in Toronto in the ‘70s.
Rev. Richard Renshaw, CSC, Montreal