Impacts on children of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

As will be seen, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its examination of Canada in October 2003, expressed concern about a number of areas relating to migrant and refugee children.1 2. BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD WHAT THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD SAYS: Art. [...] In the Baker decision, the Supreme Court of Canada provided guidance about the principles to apply in dealing with the best interests of the child in an H&C application: The principles discussed above indicate that, for the exercise of the discretion to fall within the standard of reasonableness, the decision-maker should consider children’s best interests as an important factor, give them substan [...] IMPACTS ON CHILDREN The “substantial weight” that the Supreme Court said was to be accorded to the best interests of the children was discharged with the comment that the children could flourish in any environment as long as they have one parent with them, that the children had only been in Canada for two years, and that they appear to have suffered no lasting damage from the disappearance of thei [...] Some lawyers have challenged the exclusion of the parents of refugees who are minors from the definition of “family member”, arguing that this exclusion contravenes the children’s rights to “security of the person” under section 7 the Charter, and discriminates against them on grounds of age, contrary to section 15 of the Charter. [...] Neither humanity nor the Convention on the Rights of the Child allows the government to sacrifice the rights of some children in order to prevent the hypothetical mistreatment of other children.