Promoted as the “lesser evil” during the last federal election, Mark Carney’s Liberals are following Trump’s lead and launching a far-reaching attack against migrants.
Bill C-2, or the “Strong Borders Act”, would make sweeping changes to immigration law, essentially eliminating due process for migrants, refugees, and permanent residents.
The bill represents a significant overhaul to Canada’s immigration regime. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) would gain the power to suspend, pause, or cancel applications at their discretion. The Minister of Public Safety would be allowed to cancel or change a whole series of immigration documents, up to and including permanent residence, in the name of “public interest”. The bill would also make life more difficult for asylum seekers, by imposing a one-year time limit on filing refugee claims, and a time limit of only 14-days for those crossing the border with the U.S. between ports of entry.
In short, what this means is that the government will be empowered to circumvent due process in order to expel migrants faster and more efficiently.
Comparisons have been made between Carney’s legislation and Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns in the U.S. The Liberals have said outright that the bill is intended to address Trump’s “concerns” about border security. After spending the election campaign posturing as the only party able to stand up to Trump, this reeks of liberal hypocrisy.
Ultimately, however, this isn’t a case of weak little Canadians appeasing the U.S. The Liberals have been drawing back on immigration for a while, for example by capping the number of international students last year. In October of 2024, the Liberals announced their plan to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada by nearly 900,000. Bill C-2 will certainly make it easier to hit that target.
There is an economic rationale behind their attacks.
During the pandemic and the so-called “Great Resignation,” the ruling class leaned heavily on migrant labour to avoid meeting workers’ demands for better wages and conditions. Migrants were pushed into low-wage, high-risk sectors—warehouses, farms, fast food, trucking, elder care—while universities offset decades of underfunding by gouging international students with exorbitant tuition fees. Private colleges and immigration consultants cashed in as well.
By creating a pool of vulnerable, unprotected, and unorganized workers, the bosses were able to drive down the cost of labour and continue to increase profits without investing in production.
Now, with the Canadian economy tottering on the edge of recession, and growing unemployment, migrant workers are a convenient scapegoat for the problems that the capitalists created, from the housing crisis to declining social services.
The bill will also lay the groundwork for a growing population of undocumented migrants. Amongst those hundreds of thousands of workers who will be told to pack up and leave after investing all of their savings, or to go back to their dangerous place of origin, how many will choose to try their chance at staying in Canada illegally—only to end up even more vulnerable and easier to exploit?
Recently, we’ve seen Trump stage dramatic and violent attacks against immigrant workers as part of his mass deportation plans—as well as the inspiring movement of working-class Americans fighting back. Carney is no Trump. But his “Strong Borders Act”, which threatens immigrants with the possibility of stripping them of their legal status without due process, opens the door to the same kind of sweeping deportations as those taking place in the U.S.A.
On both sides of the border, attacks on immigrants are attacks against the working class as a whole. By keeping migrant workers insecure and isolated from the rest of the class, the capitalists drive down wages, undermine union organizing, and fracture solidarity along lines of immigration status and nationality.
There is no lesser evil here. Whether of the MAGA hat-wearing or the maple-leaf lapel pin-wearing type, these politicians ultimately defend the same interests.
