What Bill C-12 Really Does to Canada's Immigration System and Who Pays the Price
The controversial border law reshaping refugee rights is heading to a Senate vote. Here's who gets left behind.
Photo by Albert Stoynov on Unsplash
Episode #103
What Is Bill C-12 and Why Are People Concerned About It
Bill C-12 rewrites how Canada handles refugee claims and immigration applications. The government calls it the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. Passed by the House of Commons in December 2025, the bill now sits before the Senate, with a final report deadline of February 24, 2026, Parliament of Canada.
The government states the bill strengthens border security and modernizes immigration powers to address complex security challenges, Canada.ca. Critics say it abandons people fleeing persecution. The Canadian Bar Association warns that the bill undermines accountability, fairness, and refugee protections Canadian Bar Association.
The concern centers on three questions nobody has answered convincingly. Who decides when “public interest” justifies canceling thousands of immigration documents overnight? What happens to someone whose home country becomes dangerous 13 months after they arrived in Canada? Why shift refugee hearings to a process with an 80 percent rejection rate?
Here is what the bill changes, section by section.
What Bill C-12 Changes in Immigration and Asylum Law
Asylum timelines and the 12-month rule
Anyone who arrived in Canada after June 24, 2020, loses the right to claim refugee status if they wait more than one year from their first entry, Department of Justice Canada. The clock starts at the first entry, not the most recent. Someone who came to study in 2023, returned home, then faced persecution in 2025, would be permanently barred from claiming asylum in Canada.
Shift from IRB hearings to PRRA
People affected by the 12-month rule or irregular border crossing restrictions lose access to Immigration and Refugee Board hearings and get redirected to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment instead of Canada.ca. PRRA approval rates hover around 15 to 20 percent, Immigration News Canada. IRB hearings allow oral testimony, cross-examination, and legal representation. PRRAs are paper-based reviews with minimal procedural protections.
Expanded ministerial authority to pause applications
The Governor in Council gains the power to cease accepting immigration applications and suspend or terminate processing of pending applications, CIC News. This applies to work permits, study permits, permanent residence cards, and temporary resident visas. The government defines “public interest” to include administrative errors, fraud, public health, public safety, or national security, Business Standard. No statutory limits exist on how long suspensions last.
Expanded data sharing across agencies
Bill C-12 authorizes Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to share client information about identity, status, and immigration documentation with federal, provincial, and territorial partners Canada.ca. Undocumented workers asserting labor rights face deportation risk when employers report them to border enforcement Migrantrights.
How Many People Does Bill C-12 Affect Each Year
The Immigration and Refugee Board backlog provides context. The IRB faces significant increases in refugee claims and inventory Canadian Bar Association. Modeling who gets barred requires assumptions about claim timing and entry dates.
Anyone who arrived after June 2020 and did not make a refugee claim within one year becomes permanently ineligible for Romerohouse. This captures students whose study permits expire while conditions at home deteriorate. It includes temporary workers who discover their LGBTQ identity puts them at risk if they return. It affects visitors whose governments change regimes.
The Pre-Removal Risk Assessment process historically rejects roughly 80 percent of applications, effectively fast-tracking removals. If 10,000 people per year get redirected from IRB hearings to PRRA, roughly 8,000 face deportation who might have won protection under the previous system.
The government also gains broad discretionary powers to suspend acceptance of immigration applications and terminate processing of pending applications, CIC News. How many temporary residents fall into suspension categories depends entirely on what the Cabinet considers “public interest” at any given moment.
If these numbers feel abstract, the next section explains what this looks like in real life.
What Bill C-12 Means for Ontario Communities
Ontario hosts the largest share of newcomers to Canada. Changes to immigration mechanics ripple through health care, schools, labor markets, and housing.
Temporary workers lose status overnight when ministerial orders suspend their permits. The worker who processes orders at the distribution center gets 15 days to leave the country. The family renting the townhouse moves out. The kids leave their school mid-semester. The employer scrambles to fill the position.
International students face similar disruption. The bill allows the government to amend or impose conditions on temporary resident documents and on temporary residents themselves, Business Standard. A student halfway through nursing school at Seneca College finds their study permit canceled due to “administrative error.” They paid tuition. They signed a lease. Now they have no legal status and no refund.
People from countries under removal moratoriums face particular hardship because they cannot access PRRA while removal remains suspended, yet also cannot make refugee claims under the new rules, Canadian Lawyer. They exist in permanent limbo, renewing temporary work permits constantly with no path to stability.
This is not an immigration issue. This is a community stability issue.
Is Bill C-12 Legal and Does It Respect Refugee Rights
The government states that Bill C-12 protects privacy and rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada.ca. The Justice Minister reviewed the bill and found no potential effects on Charter rights and freedoms regarding the ineligibility provisions of the Department of Justice Canada.
Legal experts disagree. The Canadian Bar Association warns that the bill contains vague language like “where it is in the public interest” with no statutory limitations, posing risks of arbitrary or discriminatory application Canadian Bar Association. Decades of jurisprudence emphasize the need for individualized assessments in refugee determinations and establish that delay in advancing a claim should not automatically undermine access to a Charter-mandated hearing, Canadian Bar Association.
Bill C-12 threatens the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to places where they face torture, cruel treatment, or life-threatening harm, Amnesty International Canada. The 1951 Refugee Convention places no time limits on when someone makes a refugee claim, Our Commons.
Bill C-12 shifts more types of claims from the IRB to IRCC for PRRA determination, creating new Federal Court caseloads, including judicial review applications and stay applications Cila. The legislation will likely prompt significant constitutional litigation and class actions regarding limitations on access to refugee protection and expanded powers to cancel or suspend visas, Canadian Bar Association.
The debate is not whether Canada controls borders. The debate is how Canada does so.
Who Bears the Greatest Risk Under Bill C-12
Trauma survivors who delay filing
Someone fleeing domestic violence needs time to understand they qualify for protection. Someone escaping political persecution might not immediately realize the danger of returning home. The one-year deadline fails to acknowledge that situations change, and people might not have fears of persecution when they first arrive, but later face significant risk due to government changes or political unrest, Romerohouse.
LGBTQ refugees
A gay man from Jamaica enters Canada on a visitor visa while living discreetly at home, hoping to avoid danger by keeping a low profile. Immigration News Canada. He spends months building community and safety. By the time he files a refugee claim, 13 months have passed since entry. Under Bill C-12, he gets barred from an IRB hearing and faces deportation through the PRRA system.
People whose countries become unsafe after arrival
Someone who studied in Canada for three years and returned home in accordance with their study permit faces a crisis when their ethnic group gets targeted by armed militia or government forces, Romerohouse. They would never be allowed to make a refugee claim in Canada because their first entry occurred years earlier.
Delayed filers without legal support
People face frequent communication and technological barriers, lack support in complying with requirements, or need more time to provide documents to Our Commons. Missing a deadline by days results in claims declared abandoned. Once a claim is declared abandoned, the person cannot make another refugee claim and is barred from PRRA for 12 months, during which time they will likely be removed from Our Commons.
Policies like this are judged by who they leave behind.
What Happens Next With Bill C-12 and What Canadians Do
The Senate resumed sitting on February 3, 2026, to review Bill C-12, CBC News. The Standing Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs must submit its final report by February 24, 2026 Parliament of Canada. Bills passed in the Commons are rarely defeated in the Senate, CIC News.
If you want to stay informed, track Senate debates through openparliament.ca. A broad coalition of civil liberties, data privacy, refugee, migrants’ rights, and gender justice organizations led by Amnesty International called for the full withdrawal of Bill C-12 JURIST.
If you want to contact your representative, tell your Senator why this bill matters to your community. Explain how immigration policy affects local stability.
If you want to support legal challenges, organizations expect constitutional litigation and class actions regarding limitations on refugee protection access Canadian Bar Association. Find the groups preparing these challenges and support their work.
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