The federal government is trying to gain the power to cancel applications for groups of visa holders, at least in part due to concerns about fraud from India and Bangladesh, according to internal documents obtained by CBC News.
A departmental presentation from the Office of the Minister of Immigration said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and unnamed US partners are committed to identifying and canceling fraudulent visitor visa applications.
Canadian organizations and U.S. partners formed a working group seeking to strengthen authorities' powers to deny and cancel visas, according to the presentation, which singled out India and Bangladesh as “country-specific issues.”
The section explaining how the mass cancellation power can be used lists hypothetical scenarios such as a pandemic, war and “country-specific visa holders.”
Publicly, Immigration Minister Lena Diab cited the pandemic or war as the reason the government is seeking these powers, but did not mention country-specific visa holders.
The presentation provides further insight into Ottawa's motivations for seeking mass cancellation powers.
This provision was introduced into Parliament as part of Bill C-2. sweeping government border legislation. This bill has since been fell apart in twowith the mass visa waiver included in C-12, which the government hopes to pass quickly.
More than 300 civil society groups have expressed concerns about the legislation. Some, such as the Migrant Rights Network, say abolishing the groups would give the government the opportunity to create a “mass deportation machine.”
Immigration lawyers also question whether the ability to cancel applications en masse was intended to allow the federal government to reduce the growing backlog of applications.
The federal government will cut permanent immigration to Canada by more than 20 percent over the next three years, leaving groups such as temporary workers and international students in limbo. It follows polls that show most Canadians' attitudes toward immigration have soured.
The number of asylum applications from Indian citizens increased from less than 500 per month in May 2023 to about 2,000 by July 2024, the document said.
The presentation states that screening of temporary resident visa applications from India is slowing down the processing of applications.
It said processing times increased from an average of 30 days at the end of July 2023 to 54 days later. The department said the number of permits also began to decline in 2024 as it devoted more resources to inspection, from more than 63,000 in January to about 48,000 in June.
The presentation also noted the increase in the number of “no boarders” in India – passengers not allowed to board planes – as of summer 2024. By 31 July that year, 1,873 applicants had been identified for further questioning and procedural fairness letters were sent to them outlining their rights and potential remedies.
The document does not provide any data on claims from Bangladesh.
IRCC told CBC News in a statement last month that the new powers were not proposed “with a specific group of people or situation in mind” and that “Decisions will not be made unilaterally.”
A separate document from October 2024 – a memorandum to then-immigration minister Mark Miller – called on him to push for the department to be given additional powers to cancel visas, without naming any individual countries.
“The ability to revoke temporary resident documents reduces security risks and limits the potential misuse of such documents,” the department noted.
The memorandum also states that the risk of applicants seeking judicial review of an annulment “depends on the specific facts of each case, in particular whether procedural fairness has been observed.”
“Concrete steps” to control immigration
CBC News referred questions about the documents to Diab's office as well as the Department of Immigration and International Relations.
In a statement, the Immigration Department said it had taken “concrete steps to minimize unnecessary border volume, increase information sharing and reduce the number of inauthentic visitors and illegal border crossings.”
The agency said these actions, including more rigorous screening of temporary resident visa (TRV) applications from “countries with the highest rates of abuse,” have resulted in a 97 percent reduction in the number of illegal foreign nationals crossing the U.S. border into Canada since a peak in June 2024.
The department also said asylum applications from TRV holders dropped 71 percent in May compared to the same period last year, and visa denials due to fraud increased 25 percent from January to May, also compared to the same period last year.
He did not directly answer questions about why Bangladesh and India were singled out in the internal presentation seen by CBC News, or why a country-specific mass cancellation scenario was not made public.
IRCC also did not name the US partners mentioned in the document, saying it could not comment on bilateral negotiations with foreign governments.
The department said each use of the mass cancellation power will be “decided in the governor's council” and published in the Canadian Gazette to explain “why the order is in the public interest, who will be affected by the order and how it will be affected, any exceptions, refunds or other relevant considerations.”
Restoring relations with India
While the department seeks these powers, the federal government is also trying to renew its relationship with India.
Controversy between the two countries dates back to 2023, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian government agents of potential involvement in the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
The Indian government has denied the allegations.
Most recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Canada in June during the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney and despite protests from the Canadian Sikh community. They expressed interest in resuming bilateral relations.
In August, both countries renamed high commissioners under each other's jurisdiction.
IRCC deferred a question about what impact the powers it is seeking might have on ties between India and Canada to its international affairs department, which did not respond to CBC News' question on the matter.
