A federal e-petition is calling on the Canadian government to revoke permission for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to operate in Canada and to cut ties with companies that do business with the U.S. agency.
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Petition e-7146, filed under foreign affairs, opened for signatures Feb. 6 and is scheduled to close June 6 at 2:35 p.m. EDT.
The petition raises concerns about the record of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It alleges the agency has been widely documented as engaging in serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, family separation, detention of children, medical neglect and deaths in custody.
The petition also states that Canadians, including children, have been detained in ICE custody. It further alleges Canadian companies have supplied goods, services, technology and security services to ICE or the Department of Homeland Security, and that the Government of Canada has provided public funding, contracts, subsidies or export permits to companies that contract with the U.S. agency.
Petitioners argue Canada has obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and the Export and Import Permits Act to prevent exports where there is a substantial risk of serious human rights violations.
Among its six calls to action, the petition urges the House of Commons to cancel federal subsidies, grants and public funding to Canadian companies that contract with ICE or the Department of Homeland Security. It also calls for Ottawa to cancel federal contracts with companies that provide goods or services to ICE, and to deny or revoke export permits for armoured vehicles, surveillance technology and other controlled goods destined for the agency.
The petition further calls on the federal government to revoke permission for ICE to operate offices on Canadian soil and to terminate the Safe Third Country Agreement pursuant to Article 10. It also urges Canada to take steps to ensure it does not support, enable or legitimize alleged human rights abuses committed by ICE.
ICE maintains a presence in Canada through attaché offices at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and at U.S. consulates in major cities, including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Ottawa.
These offices primarily focus on immigration enforcement co-ordination, information-sharing and liaison work with Canadian law enforcement agencies. ICE personnel posted abroad are typically assigned in small numbers as part of diplomatic missions. Publicly available information does not specify the exact number of ICE agents currently stationed in Canada.
The petition, which can be found here, remains open for signatures until early June and, if it meets the required threshold, may be presented in the House of Commons for a formal government response.
As of Feb. 19, the petition has received more than 9,000 signatures. More than 1,200 have come from Alberta and more than 1,600 from British Columbia.
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For those Canadians who feel angst by ice presence in Canada and feel it is a threat and posses questions to the understanding of what actually constitutes Canada as a 51 state might look at ice agents with some trepidation while being in Canada while those who support ideologically Canada becoming a 51 state as being vindicated that in fact it is already taking place or past tense? Has taken place. I think it lends credence to those that fear Canada becoming a state while lending support for those that welcome Canada in becoming a state that the Americans are already here and more than likely Canada has already capitulated to becoming a state.