#noii

OUTLAWS

My farmpire bard Lucian. He’s unfortunately dead (For real this time, like Really dead. Like, TPK dead lmfao) but he lives on in my heart~ Here’s a some draws I did over the past couple years of him and a few of the other party members. (who are also dead, oh my god how did we let this hAPPEN)  

Two years ago, the federal government committed to stopping family separations, and the detention or housing of minors — except in extremely limited circumstances.  

Now, the Canadian Council for Refugees has released a report on how that's going, saying that Canada still has some serious work to do.

Statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency say that 118 minors were housed or detained at an immigration holding centre in the most recent fiscal year.

Jenny Jeanes with Action Réfugiés Montréal says that number doesn't tell the whole story. (See also:  Separation of families at Canadian border is creating 'invisibly detained children': advocate)

Her organization works with people detained at the Laval Immigration Holding Centre. It also provided information to the Canadian Council for Refugees for its report.

She spoke with As it Happens guest host Helen Mann about some of the findings.

Official statistics say there were 118 children at these facilities in the most recent fiscal year. What does that number say to you?

What the report is highlighting is that while this is a decrease from previous years, which is obviously going in the right direction, it's falling short of the commitments that were made by the minister of public safety and by the agency to keep children and families out of detention.

What the report may be revealing that isn't present in official government statistics, is that there have been quite a few families separated at the border in Quebec, families seeking refugee protection here in Canada — where one parent is detained, and the other parent and children are sent to a shelter, seemingly to avoid having more children in detention, but creating some very, very, harmful consequences for those children to be separated from their parent.

The Canadian Council for Refugees says in the report it's also concerned about issues around family separation in which one parent may be detained and the other parent is not. What's the impact of that on children?

We've had a lot of phone calls this year, often from dads, but sometimes mums, who are inside the centre.

They say, 'I arrived at the border with my family. We were separated yesterday and I don't know where they are.' This has happened again and again.

And so we'll tell them that they're probably in a shelter for refugee claimants. We'll give them the number, we'll often help to make that connection.

But many times this has happened, and it's like the other part of the family disappears.

And similarly, we get calls from the parent who's at the shelter. We've given bus tickets to some families to go and visit, and it's a long way from downtown Montreal, and so with young kids in tow it can be difficult.

And then we've had some of the parents in detention say 'I don't want my kids to come and visit me anymore, because they see where I am, and when they leave they're crying too much, and it's too distressing for them.'