Critics say Canada’s new immigration and border laws put LGBTQ+ people in danger – National

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from other political parties gathered to raise the Pride flag on Parliament Hill.

But an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the US says the federal government’s new border laws put people at risk of being sent back to countries where they face persecution.

Devon Matthews, head of the Rainbow Railroad program, said his organization is concerned about its working relationship with Ottawa as the federal government reduces the number of refugees it accepts and cuts the organization’s funding.

He said his office is also concerned about new laws that require refugee applications to be made within one year of the applicant’s first arrival in Canada.

“This has nothing to do with why someone waited or why someone didn’t meet the one-year standard,” Matthews told The Canadian Press.

“It’s really just a technical eligibility requirement that doesn’t give the person an opportunity to explain the intricacies of why they have to wait.”

A former Middle Eastern international student living as an openly gay man in Canada is among those left in limbo as a result of the new law.

The former student told The Canadian Press she filed a refugee claim after photos from her time in Canada were discovered once she returned home, putting her safety at risk.

But he said that because he is studying in Canada for two and a half years starting in 2022, he was told that his refugee claim was ineligible under the new border law, C-12.

The Canadian Press has agreed not to name him or his country of origin because of the risks faced by family members still there.

“I support the LGBTQ community and I attended many events and several stories from social media were leaked to my community at the time,” he said.

“So some incidents and… some pictures fell into the hands of bad people and they threatened to tell the police and beat me. So it happened more than once, and when the last time it happened I felt like I couldn’t live like that and I would live in fear.”

Several Middle Eastern countries have morality laws that punish LGBTQ people with prison terms. The refugee claimant said his family would also face social and economic impacts because of his orientation.

“If you’re found to be LGBTQ, that’s it, that’s the end of your life. You can’t work, you can be arrested at home,” he said. “And of course it’s a scandal for the family, because it’s not something that can be accepted.

“So I ran because if that happens, I will spend my life in prison. Or even if they don’t put me in prison for a long time, it’s for my career, it’s for my life.”

He said his refugee application was progressing smoothly and had been approved for file review – a less intensive examination for low-risk refugee applications.

But when C-12 was passed earlier this year, he was one of about 30,000 people who received letters saying their refugee applications may no longer be eligible because they first entered Canada more than a year before applying.

This one-year rule applies to refugee claims made on or after 3 June 2025 and applies retroactively to first arrivals on or after 24 June 2020.

Although refugee claims filed by people in this situation will not be sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board for review, they are still eligible for a pre-removal risk assessment, or PRRA. The PRRA has historically low approval rates because it tends to be the primary appeal route for claims denied at the IRB.

The PRRA process is primarily paper-based but an interview may be requested if the officer requires further information.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab said at a Senate committee hearing in February that when it became clear that people should be able to stay in Canada based on documented evidence, “they would get an immediate ‘yes’.”

The government said it introduced the one-year rule because some people were applying for asylum to stay in Canada after their temporary visas expired.

Diab told the Senate committee that 37 percent of refugee claims made between June 3, 2025 and October 31, 2025 – about 19,000 documents – would be considered ineligible under the one-year rule.

Suzy Newing, a lawyer for a former student from the Middle East, said her client does not qualify to be sued in court under the constitution on the grounds that her client has a right to an oral trial – which is not guaranteed under the PRRA process – and anti-discrimination provisions.

He said there are a variety of reasons why LGBTQ+ people may not file refugee claims within a year of first arriving in Canada.

“For example, maybe they came to Canada before admitting or declaring or accepting their sexual orientation, and then they started disclosing that here. That wouldn’t necessarily happen within a year of coming to Canada,” Newing said.

“They may have known (their orientation) all along, but managed to hide it in their home country. And then the one year limit basically determines when they will express their feelings to their family members, because that’s when the risk often arises … when the individual will disclose those things to their family members while they are here in Canada.”

Many Federal Court challenges to refugee claims deemed ineligible under the new law have been referred to docket review, so judges are expected to rule broadly on the constitutionality of the one-year rule.

The Middle Eastern refugee claimant must now wait for the PRRA or a court decision to find out whether he or she will be allowed to remain in Canada.

He said even though he was allowed to stay, his trust in Canada has been shaken.

“Now I feel like I’ve been attacked by everyone, by the government, by Canadian society and they just want people to leave,” he said.

“Throwing those people out, you kill them because they don’t go back to living happy and fine lives. You push them back to their deaths.”

Matthews said Rainbow Railroad experienced its largest number of aid requests in 2025 – more than 20,000, a 51 percent increase over 2024. He said the organization is on track to receive more aid requests this year.

Matthews said Rainbow Railroad is considering increasing its political activism in response.