Ep 130 The Not So Safe Third Country

A Podcast Called INTREPID

We’re back with an episode focusing on a recent development: the Federal Court’s holding that the “safe third country” refugee agreement with the United States is unconstitutional. In fact, it violates section 7 of the Charter — the very right we explored on Chapter 4 of our Muskoka Chair Chats in Ep 129. (Listeners may want to listen to that explainer first). Here, Jamie Liew from the Faculty of Law, uOttawa takes us through how the refugee law system works at both the international and domestic level, including in relation to some security issues. She then describes the operations of the “safe third party” agreement with the United States — and why it created the so-called irregular border crossing phenomena much in the news a few years back. Then, she walks us through the Federal Court decision and what it means. This is an excellent primer on a topic we have mentioned from time to time on this podcast series — refugee law — but not fully discussed. Hoping everyone gets as much from the discussion with Jamie as we did. The Federal Court decision is here.