MONTREAL — Over the last year, the Liberal Canadian government of Mark Carney has proposed two new laws that attack the rights and conditions of immigrants, Bills C-2 and C-12. Bill C-2, introduced earlier, is named the Strong Borders Act. These laws aim to limit the right of immigrants to file for asylum, as well as open the door for deportation of whole classes of people.
After widespread protests against the Strong Borders Act, the government introduced C-12, which contains many of the same anti-immigrant measures while omitting some that had drawn the sharpest criticism. Both bills are still pending.
On immigration matters, “this new bill is the same as Bill C-2,” Karen Cocq, co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, told the press. “No one’s safety is served by measures that block refugees from hearings, impose retroactive time limits on safety, and grant mass status-cancellation powers that violate due-process protections for the most vulnerable.”
Dozens of organizations, including union and immigrant rights groups, have spoken out against the two proposed laws. On June 18, 2025, a statement was issued by 176 organizations calling for withdrawal of Bill C-2. Signers included the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, United Church of Canada, Oxfam Canada and Migrant Rights Network.
The statement called for allowing permanent residency for all. A statement calling for withdrawal of C-12 was issued Oct. 14 by a broad coalition of groups, including Amnesty International, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and several women’s rights organizations.
The Canadian government is pushing to strip legal protection away from the rapidly expanding number of immigrant workers. Ottawa is refusing to renew thousands of work permits granted in recent years.
The goal of the ruling Canadian capitalist families is not to stop immigration. They need a certain pace of cheaper immigrant labor. Their aim is to create a pariah layer of workers with less legal protection, and to set immigrant workers against workers in Canada with papers, to divide and weaken the working class. They see this as more important today, as competition among bosses and between capitalist powers is deepening.
More immigrant workers
In 2023 over 1 million immigrants entered Canada — more than in any year since 1867. Many have come on temporary work permits. It is estimated that 1.9 million of these permits will expire this year. The Feb. 6 Globe and Mail says there could be 2 million workers without papers in Canada by the end of 2026. Many will be forced to work underground and face even greater exploitation.
One type of permit — called closed permit — ties workers to one particular employer. If they stop working for that boss, they’re subject to deportation. This has led to all kinds of intimidation and abuses of immigrant workers.
Workers under these conditions, especially in agriculture, are subject to wage theft, physical and sexual abuse, and denial of protective equipment. Complaints to the police about dangerous and abusive conditions are ignored.
A Sept. 23 statement, supported by major unions here and other groups, calls for putting an end to closed permits. The groups “demand that the government respect migrant workers’ dignity and rights by granting them open work permits, which allow workers to freely change jobs.”
Members of the Hospital Employees’ Union marched April 17 in front of Surrey Memorial Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, protesting the threatened deportation of fellow workers whose permits were running out. The union says it can’t afford to lose essential health care workers since they already face serious staffing shortages. A February poll in Quebec found that 83% opposed deporting temporary immigrants who are working.
In Quebec, the provincial government has abolished the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), a way for immigrants to get permanent residency, the last step before citizenship. Thousands of workers now face deportation. This has led to several protests, including by a new coalition called “Quebec is us too,” that brought out thousands in eight cities Feb. 7, with over 1,000 in Montreal alone.
Several unions, including the major labor federations — Confederation of National Trade Unions, Quebec Federation of Labour and Quebec Union Centre — took part.
There were a record 22,000 deportations last year, a significant increase. Some who have been denied extension of their permits are now applying for asylum. Only 14% for those on temporary resident visas and 20% of those on student visas have had their applications approved.
“The unity of the working class, regardless of where we are born, is a life-and-death question,” Joe Young, the Communist League candidate for Quebec’s National Assembly in the St. Laurent riding and a member of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, told the Militant. “Permanent residency for all! End all deportations!”