“Interrogating the Constitutional Validity of ‘Indefinite Detention’ and the ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’ in Canada”

This paper analyzes the constitutionality of two recent high-profile judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), the 2019 Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) v. Chhina, that addresses the human rights issues of the indefinite detention of forced migrants, and the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA), 2021 Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Canada Council for Refugees, that decided the appeal of the 2004 Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), that considers both as “safe countries” for refugees and requires asylum seekers to make their claims for refugee protection in the first country of their arrival. Critical legal analyses on the core elements of each of these contentious judgements will yield assessments of their constitutional validity.