Ordering the immediate release of immigration detainee Ricardo Scotland, who has spent the last 10 months in maximum-security jail despite not having any criminal charges or convictions, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan was unequivocal in his condemnation of federal immigration authorities.“Although the government cannot provide a clear rationale for Mr. Scotland’s initial or continued detention, the reason for this lack of clarity is itself clear to me,” he said in court Monday. “There is no rationale. Mr. Scotland is being held in prison for no real reason at all.”Morgan’s decision is the latest rebuke to Canada’s immigration detention system, by which the federal government jails non-citizens, often in maximum-security institutions, for an indefinite length of time without trial.Scotland, a 38-year-old refugee claimant from Barbados and single parent to his 13-year-old daughter, has spent a total of 18 months in a maximum-security jail in two stints over the last two years. He has no criminal record, but he was detained by Canada’s border police — the Canada Border Services Agency — as a flight risk while his refugee claim is being processed based on four alleged breaches of conditions related to criminal charges that were later stayed by the Crown.“Everything (Justice Morgan) said is true,” Scotland said shortly after he was released.” “I did nothing wrong.” All of the alleged breaches were either withdrawn in criminal bail court, or found to be innocent mistakes. Yet the two government bodies that oversee the arrest and detention of non-citizens — the CBSA and the Immigration and Refugee Board — continued to treat the “faux breaches,” as the judge described them, as if they were legitimate transgressions.As a result, “Mr. Scotland cannot seem to get himself out of custody,” Morgan said. “He app ...
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