Immigration ‘solution’ far from it
Even Liberals know Bill C-12 is a dud
- National Post – (Latest Edition)
- 28 Feb 2026
- Jamie Sarkonak
The Liberals’ newcomer apocalypse has finally turned into their worst political problem. Hospitals are overburdened, schools are struggling with second-language students, job prospects remain poor, birthright citizenship continues to exist and judges routinely help criminals and fraudsters remain in-country.
None of this will go away by nibbling away at the edges of immigration law, which is all the Liberals plan to do with the bill they’re pitching to Canadians as the solution: C-12.
Currently before the Senate, Bill C-12 would add a handful of conveniences to the immigration minister’s tool box. In theory, it would make information sharing between government agencies easier, bar temporary residents who have been here for more than a year from claiming asylum, and allow the minister to cancel visas and visa applications, among other things.
But these are only half-solutions to deeper problems. Easier screening thanks to better information-sharing in government is nice, but there are currently thousands of refugees from some of the most dangerous countries in the world who received protected person status without proper screening. What’s happening with them? Nothing, as far as the Liberals are concerned.
Instead of ending asylum abuse, Bill C-12 merely gives it a deadline. Barring those who have been in Canada for a year from making asylum claims will work on desperate international students trying to buy more time as they approach graduation … while still allowing anyone on a visitor visa to join the asylum queue and instantly get health coverage superior to that of a Canadian citizen. (The cost of providing enhanced care to the thousands of claimants will be $1 billion this year, rising to $1.5 billion in 2030.)
And the problem of birthright citizenship remains: any international student, temporary worker or asylum seeker who has a kid in Canada establishes a permanent umbilical cord to our social safety net.
Most significant about Bill C-12 is that it would give the immigration minister the power to cancel permanent resident visas, temporary visas, work permits and study permits. Theoretically, it could be used against criminals, but the Liberals aren’t bothered by foreigner crime; plus, if they wanted to actually expel these people with haste, they’d write it directly into the law.
BILL C-12 GUARANTEES VERY LITTLE.
Similarly, C-12 could be used to cancel whole classes of permanent residents — something that the Liberals won’t do, because that would mean admitting that they’ve been handing out PR like it’s free swag at a trade show. The French-language stream of the Express Entry program, for example, routinely accepts people with immigration scores so low that they shouldn’t even be getting temporary visas, let alone permanent ones. Don’t expect the Liberals to do anything about it, though: they frequently brag about exceeding francophone immigration targets.
It’s notable that C-12 could also be used to set country caps going forward, whether they be neutral (the same cap for everyone to prevent a single country from dominating), or targeted (lower caps for crime-exporting countries with low cultural compatibility). That’s theoretical and unlikely; Liberals would likely condemn any mention of country caps as racist.
So, Bill C-12 guarantees very little. It won’t block asylum applicants from safe countries; it won’t remove criminal non-citizens; it leaves most procedural excesses in immigration law untouched; it doesn’t even appear that it will block foreign extortionists from claiming asylum once they run into legal trouble. The bill does tinker with the wording of the rules for asylum seekers charged with crimes, but the gist is the same as what’s on the books right now: if an immigration officer doesn’t think it’s necessary to cancel an asylum application from a person with active serious charges, they don’t have to. Meanwhile, both the existing legislation and the proposed changes are silent on less-serious crimes, which means that many lawbreakers will remain free to make asylum claims.
And remember, the second any visas are mass-cancelled, court challenges will be filed. The Liberals fold like a wet noodle at any mention of “Charter rights,” so any hard stances they take could just as easily be walked back.
Finally, for Bill C-12 to be of any use, it requires ministerial initiative. Immigration Minister Lena Diab will not deliver that. Stakeholder meetings are allegedly a rarity in her office, and her default state is utter cluelessness. Even her sensitive files are handled with neglect. Case in point from earlier this month: her sign-off was needed to authorize the deportation of a fake refugee convicted of threatening to kill a Crown prosecutor, but a recent court decision mentioned that she hadn’t given it. If she can’t be bothered to eject such an obvious menace to Canadian society, she’s not about to purge the immigration queue.
Not even Diab’s Liberal colleagues think she’s doing a good job: nine of her anonymous caucus-mates expressed misgivings about her leadership to the CBC in a report published Wednesday, and when Liberal MP Ben Carr spoke to reporters in a scrum on Wednesday, he couldn’t bring himself to praise her.
Asked, “Is she good?” Carr replied: “Well, what does that mean, ‘Is she good?’ … We could certainly sit down over coffee and have a long conversation about where there are challenges and opportunities across a variety of different files but I think it’s an unfair characterization of any minister to say, ‘Are they doing good or not?’ ”
You know the Liberals feel they’re in big trouble when they can’t even bring themselves to give a little bit of self-praise. And they’re not even panicking yet — just wait until Bill C-12 passes and reveals itself to be a dud. Then we’re really in for fun.
