Canada’s Supreme Court will for the first time hear a Canada-US asylum pact case that will weigh whether the country can consider its southern neighbour “safe” for those seeking refugee status.
The outcome of Thursday’s hearing could determine whether Canada can trust that the US treats migrants properly, and could answer whether Canada holds any responsibility for migrants turned back at its border.
At the heart of the matter is the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) – a pact between the two countries that has been in place since 2004 and that requires refugee claimants to request protection in the first “safe” country they reach.
