Immigration minister says new border bill powers would have been useful during COVID-19 pandemic

Canada Border Services Agency agents walk by a CBSA vehicle at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

OTTAWA -- Immigration Minister Lena Diab says a bill before MPs that would give Ottawa new powers to limit permanent and temporary immigration applications would have been useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government’s revised border security bill, C-12, would give the government a host of new immigration powers, including the ability to limit immigration applications and cancel existing documents when the government deems it to be in the public interest.

Cabinet would have to authorize any such orders, which would be temporary.

Diab says getting that authorization would be “not that easy” and the proposed power to limit or cancel immigration applications is meant to be used only in extreme circumstances, when public safety or national security is threatened.

Julia Sande, a human rights and policy lawyer with Amnesty International Canada, points out that Canada gave temporary foreign workers in the agriculture and food processing sectors some exemptions to pandemic travel rules.

The bill also would prevent people from making asylum claims if they have been in Canada for more than one year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.

By David Baxter, The Canadian Press