OTTAWA — Senators grilled Canada Border Services Agency officials Monday about oversight at the agency following the deaths of two people in agency custody in the span of a week.
Sen. Grant Mitchell expressed concern that refugees can be held by the border agency for many years.
"That doesn't seem consistent with proper human rights," Mitchell, a Liberal appointee, said during a Senate defence and security committee meeting.
"It doesn't seem consistent with the rule of law. How do you propose that we deal with that in a fair or more just way?"
The border agency detains people who are considered a flight risk or a danger to the public, those who arrive in very large groups, and newcomers whose identities cannot be confirmed.
"We take detaining somebody very seriously," said Caroline Xavier, vice-president of the border agency's operations branch.
"We do look at various other options, other than detention, before we get there, depending on the case before us."
The border agency also consults the Immigration and Refugee Board every 30 days to determine whether someone can continue to be held, she added.
In 2013-14, the border agency held 10,088 immigrants — almost one-fifth of them refugee claimants — in various facilities, including federal holding centres and provincial and municipal jails.
Two detainees died this month in Ontario correctional facilities.
Xavier told the committee that since the agency was established in 2003, 11 people have died in custody — two in federal holding centres and nine in provincial facilities.
"We do take this matter extremely seriously," Xavier said.
Conservative Sen. Daniel Lang, the committee chairman, suggested an independent agency should immediately be called in whenever there is a death.
The border agency does its own fact-finding and, when a death takes place in a provincial jail, works with the province, the police of jurisdiction and sometimes a coroner to investigate the incident, Xavier said. "We work with whatever review mechanisms or bodies they may have with regards to their facilities."
Border agency officials have learned lessons from in-custody deaths, she said.
Lucia Vega Jimenez, 42, tried to kill herself while held by the border agency in December 2013. She was taken to hospital and died days later.
The border agency has responded to "a great many" of the recommendations from a coroner's inquest into that case, Xavier said. Changes include altering the physical setup of holding centres to minimize the possibility of detainees harming themselves.
Several rights and refugee groups have called for independent investigation of the most recent deaths as well as stronger oversight of the border agency.
The office of Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said recently the government was examining how best to provide the agency "with appropriate review mechanisms."
Martin Bolduc, vice-president of the border agency's programs branch, told the senators that it is "the government's decision whether or not to create an oversight body for us."
