VicPD continues to work with CBSA to deport people

FOI records suggest VicPD engaged with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) 61% more in 2023 than in 2019, as the department continues to turn people over for deportation.

VicPD is open about collaborating with CBSA and their support for deportation as a law enforcement tool. In 2019, at a joint police board and council meeting, Chief Del Manak said that VicPD “do not go around asking people what their status is,” but “public safety trumps everything,” “and if it comes to our attention that [a violent offender] is here illegally” they will use those avenues.  

They will also use those avenues for much less.

In February 2019, FOI records show that VicPD decided they wanted to make sure a man parked at Tim Horton’s “had a valid foreign licence and was still in Canada legally.” They also wanted to check his vehicle, which they deemed “suspicious.” He said he was a refugee, and VicPD responded by calling CBSA to question his status.

VicPD call CBSA on a refugee in a Tim Horton’s parking lot

Despite Manak’s claims, VicPD put that person’s status at risk based on suspicion alone. That example is gross on its face, but VicPD’s broader role in immigration enforcement and deportations, including for people accused of wrongdoing, should also be challenged.

Here VicPD arrested a man accused of stealing a knife. He said he had recently come to Canada. The officer says they “phoned CBSA to confirm [his] name and date of birth,” and “CBSA advised that he currently has no immigration issues.” That suggests they talked about a bit more than just his name and date of birth.

VicPD call CBSA to discuss someone’s immigration status

What if CBSA told VicPD he had “immigration issues”? VicPD would have turned him over to CBSA for deportation. As it was, VicPD placed “conditions” on him, which may have set in motion a cycle of VicPD repeatedly criminalizing him and possibly creating future “immigration issues.”

In another example, after VicPD was called to an alleged assault, they were told the person “was illegally in Canada.” They called CBSA, which appears to have directly led to his deportation.

VicPD arrest and call to CBSA leads to someone’s deportation

Similarly, in this case VicPD also arrested someone for assault, and once in custody they “suspected [him] to be an illegal immigrant.” They contacted CBSA, who sent a detention order so he could be held overnight and interviewed “in relation to his deportation.”

VicPD call CBSA and detain an individual on their behalf to discuss his deportation

In a more recent public story from December 2024, a person accused of sexual assault was arrested by VicPD. They turned him over to CBSA, who deported him.

VicPD refuses to provide detailed records as contact with CBSA rises
The screenshots above are from older reports that come from an FOI for police reports mentioning “CBSA” or “border security” between Jan. 1, 2019 and Sept. 30, 2020. There were 32 such reports, which likely didn’t include all VicPD’s interactions with CBSA. Sixteen of those interactions appear to have been initiated by VicPD. 

Last year, I filed the same FOI with VicPD for 2023 reports mentioning CBSA. VicPD sent back 35 reports, or 61% more than 2019 (3.1 a month, up from 1.9) and triple the rate from 2020. Note that I did not request 2021 and 2022 reports, and the lower 2020 figure may have been influenced by the pandemic.

Unlike for the 2019 and 2020 records, the 2023 reports VicPD sent back removed all context and only revealed the word “CBSA” wherever it appeared. How many times was VicPD complicit in, or the active cause of, someone’s deportation in 2023? We don’t know, because VicPD refused to provide further information when asked. 

Sample VicPD records released through FOI for 2023 reports mentioning CBSA

From the limited information provided, we can see that at least 22 of VicPD’s interactions with CBSA in 2023 (63%) appear to have been initiated by VicPD. That’s up from the 2019-20 reports, where only 50% appeared to have been initiated by VicPD. While the numbers above are a minimum, the limited information VicPD released suggests they are engaging with CBSA more now than they were in 2019.

Challenging immigration enforcement
While VicPD refused to provide more recent records, we can see that some of the stories from 2019-20, and the publicly disclosed 2024 sexual assault, are horrible. It does not follow, however, that we have to accept VicPD and CBSA’s use of deportation as a response.

In Border and Rule, Harsha Walia writes that in the U.S. context, “the majority of immigration apprehensions happen through jails, prisons, and the criminal justice system.” Canada is not so far removed from the violence of American immigration policy. VicPD’s collaboration with CBSA to have people deported, or to otherwise put their immigration status in jeopardy by calling border officials, is the same principle in action.

Helen O’Nions writes that people cannot be reduced “to one defining moment.” So-called “foreign criminals, their families and friends are also members of the public whose interests require protection by the state.”

It’s also important to remember that, as Wendy Chan writes, “there is nothing neutral about [deportation’s] administration nor has there ever been historically.” Canada’s immigration system portrays some people as “capable of being reformed” and others as “inherently evil” along racist lines. In immigration appeals for people with criminal convictions, Chan found that “appellants from non-white countries are … more likely to be regarded of being at risk of re-offending, less deserving of compassion, and more likely to be described as being an ‘undesirable’ person not worthy of being allowed to stay in Canada.”

For anyone who still thinks that Canada’s immigration system is neutral, or that some people simply must be kicked out of the country, it’s also notable that studies show there is “no relationship between deportations and crime,” including violent and property crime.  

VicPD and CBSA treat some people as disposable while applying the inherent biases of Canada’s policing and justice systems. Letting VicPD and CBSA collude to deport people is state violence that rips up relationships and puts people in danger. It does not make the city safer. 

A Welcoming City
Part of Victoria’s 2019-22 strategic plan was to create a Welcoming City Strategy, which included not using “funds, personnel or equipment to detain people due to immigration status.”

Excerpt from City of Victoria Strategic Plan, 2019-2022

Part of the work of the Welcoming Cities Task Force was to assess Victoria against standards that include: “No locally mandated government policies exist where the primary purpose of the policy is to increase the rate of immigrant detention or deportation.”

Excerpt from “The Welcoming Standard,” Welcoming America.

VicPD’s active contact with CBSA — to pursue deportation when CBSA tells them it’s on the table — seems to constitute a policy whose purpose is to increase the rate of detention and deportation.

Victoria’s Welcoming Task Force invited Manak to join to advance the goal that “immigrants can call 911 without fear of deportation if undocumented.” It’s notable, then, that the Task Force’s published strategy didn’t include anything about not detaining people due to immigration status. That makes sense, because as Manak told city councillors, and as the FOI records show, VicPD does detain people due to immigration status while talking to CBSA, and they do turn people over to CBSA for detention and deportation when asked.

Screenshot from Welcoming Cities Task Force Meeting Notes.

It’s clear from VicPD’s records that they will contact CBSA about anyone whose status they question, be they people who are accused of a crime or refugees in a Tim Horton’s parking lot. VicPD’s heavily-redacted 2023 reports also suggest their contact with CBSA is increasing, and that they will continue to use the CBSA and the threat of deportation as policing tools.