https://globalnews.ca/news/11293173/united-states-deportation-non-binary/#CanPoli #trans
So this story. My take.
2 years ago, I lodged petition e-4268, to the federal government, requesting that they suspend the Safe Third Country agreement for the US and UK, because it was clear that trans and nonbinary people were under oppressive attack by both countries.
We gathered 167k signatures, the third highest number in Canadian Parliamentary history (at the time). The government responded that "Look, we have a Safe Third Country Agreement, we can't violate it, they're designated, and besides, we already do this."
I checked. They do it, alright. 640 applicants in eight years. TWO granted.
So...petition failed.
And here we are, two years and a couple of months later, and now a federal court Judge (and bless her, she's Indigenous, Canada's (shamefully) first Indigenous judge on the federal court) has said, "Yes, you were right, this immigration officer who decided to deport this person had clearly failed to take into account the current status of anti-LGBTQ repression in the US. And the government needs to quickly revisit the Safe Third Country Agreement, to see whether it should be given an exemption for trans and nonbinary people."
So. If the government appeals, it will take months for this to be resolved. Probably, if usual timelines hold, into next year. That's important to note.
And then the government will, almost certainly, have to decide what to do. Publicly. They will either have to produce evidence that trans and nonbinary people are safe in the US (which is like saying "prove that the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny aren't having an affair", and equally as likely), or accept the court's recommendation and carve out an exemption for trans and nonbinary people in the S3CA.
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