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
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
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)
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