UNI320Y: Canadian Questions: Issues and Debates

Week 8: Citizenship and Border Control

Professor Emily Gilberthttp://individual.utoronto.ca/emilygilbert/

Citizenship and Border Control

I. Multiculturalism and Essentialized Identities

II. Non-Citizens: Deportations and Detentions

III. Border Control and Security Technologies

I: Multiculturalism and Essentialized Identities

Multiculturalism (1971; 1988) Scholars Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka Recent emphasis on business links and global

competitiveness

Yasmeen Abu-Laban Multiculturalism

as inclusionary discourse around citizenship as processes whereby minority collectivities might

gain recognition, protection and rights

Debates over: ‘Difference blindness’ vs. special recognition and

valuing of difference Cultural identity vs. individual rights

Problems arise with essentialism Eg “clash of civilizations” of Samuel Huntington Variation of ‘cold war’ polarization

Cultural essentialism poses challenge to ethics of liberalism and liberal democracy

Towards anti-essentialism: Wouldn’t assume that entire culture

or community as one thing Would take seriously economics,

politics, history, different interpretations of history, and genuine grievances

Postmulticultural (Burman) denotes “history of awkward, top-

down diversity management” (Burman)

Assumption that culture = ancestral origin

Advocates cultural hybridity

Hérouxville Jan 2007: passes

rules for immigrants

Feb 2007: Premier Charest establishes Commission for Consultation on Accommodation Practices regarding Cultural Differences

Co-chaired by Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor

Mandate: to draw up an accurate portrayal of how exactly

accommodations are being made; to conduct a wide-scale inquiry in all regions of the

province to find out what Quebecers are really thinking “beyond polls and spontaneous reactions;”

to come up with recommendations on how accommodations can be made that are “respectful of the common values of Quebecers.”

II: Non-Citizens: Deportations and Detentions

Post 9/11, security, and the “immigrant menace”

Bill C-36: Anti-Terrorism Act Passed in House of Commons 190 – 47 Received Royal Assent Dec 18, 2001 “creates measures to identify, prosecute, convict

and punish terrorist groups; provides new investigative tools to law enforcement and national security agencies; and ensures that Canadian values of respect and fairness are preserved and the root causes of hatred are addressed through stronger laws against hate crimes and propaganda” http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/news/nr/2001/doc_27787.html

Bill C-36 defines a terrorist act as one committed "for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause."

Towards ethnic and racial profiling? Oct 24, 2006: Superior Court judge strikes down

motive clause – Mohammed Momin Khawaja case

Concerns over investigative powers, eg: 'secret' trials, preemptive detention, electronic surveillance

Creating “an alien from within”? (Macklin)

But 5-year sunset clause on provisions that:

Allows police to arrest suspects without warrant and detain them for 3 days without charges if police believe a terrorist act may be committed.

Allows a judge to compel a witness to testify in secret about past associations or perhaps pending acts under penalty of going to jail if the witness doesn't comply.

Feb 27, 2007: House of Commons vote 159 - 124 against renewing the provisions

Deportations – Mohamed Cherfi: deported to US in 2004

Detentions – Secret Trial Five: Mohammad Mahjoub (2000-2007), Mahmoud Jaballah (2001-2007), Hassan Almrei (2001-), Adil Charkaoui (2003-2005), Mohamed Harkat (2002-2006)

Security certificates: Signed by Solicitor General, Minister of CIC, and

endorsed by Federal Court Judge All immigration proceedings suspended Foreign nationals are detained, as may be

permanent residents Federal Court decides whether security

certificates are unreasonable Since 1978: 28 security certificates issued

Dec 2004: Federal Court of Appeal rules that security certificates are constitutional

non-citizens and permanent residents can be subjected to a different standard of legal treatment

Feb 2007: Supreme Court strikes down security certificate system as is because violates Charter: 9 – 0 ruling

One year delay to allow Parliament time to write new law

No One Is IllegalThe No One is Illegal campaign is in full confrontation with

Canadian colonial border policies, denouncing and taking action to combat racial profiling of immigrants and refugees, detention and deportation policies, and wage-slave conditions of migrant

workers and non-status people.

We struggle for the right for our communities to maintain their livelihoods and resist war, occupation and displacement, while

building alliances and supporting indigenous sisters and brothers also fighting theft of land and displacement.

Place and belonging: nation and city

Diasporic city: extra-territorial connections‘sedimented’ relationsmultiplicityabsence and presencerhythms of mobile and immobilized

Henri Lefebvre: differential space

III: Border Control and Security Technologies

Securitizing Citizenship post 9/11 Increased border security and need for

documentation Move towards national ID cards?

Permanent Resident Card introduced with revised IRP Act, Feb 2001,

enacted June 2002 replaces IMM 1000 Record of Landing Applies to about 1.5 million permanent

residents First ICAO card

Laser engraved photo

Personal data Optical memory

stripe with 1.1 mgb of data

Embedded hologram

Has capacity to hold biometric data

Valid for 5 years

States: producing their populations Fixing identities, creating legible population

UN: Write me Down, Make Me Real Initiative to register all children at birth Launched by Archbishop Desmond Tutu Aim: to register the 48 million children whose

births go unrecorded each year Registration affirmed in Article 7 of UN

Convention on Rights of Child

BiometricsBiosurveillanceBiopolitics

Creating useful state subjects, responsible immigrants

Bordering: outsiders and outsiders-within—(Sunera Thobani)

The other: stock exchange of security: trading on defined enemies (Didier Bigo)

Managing the population: eg mobility rights

Internalization of borders: not just at a fixed territorial line but internalized

Technologies of control (detention) and strategies of exclusion (deportation) (Peter Nyers)