As reports from Washington suggest that the U.S. wants to increase its focus on its northern border, officials in Ottawa are grappling with what’s being called a “completely unacceptable” mistake that allowed a person of “national security concern” to be granted permanent residency in Canada in 2017.
CBC News reports that following the failure, both the Canadian Border Services Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada instituted a series of changes to prevent a similar incident.
The changes were outlined in a briefing note sent by Canada Border Services Agency president John Ossowski to Public Safety Minister Raph Goodale in early 2018, regarding the 2017 error.
Canada has seen an increase of asylum claims over the past three years, prompting many in the U.S. to worry about security at thre U.S.-Canada border. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)
The CBC’s Catharine Tunney reports that a heavily redacted copy of the document was recently obtained by CBC News through access to informational laws.
The briefing note says the subject was granted permanent residence status “due to a series of failures on the part of both Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada and the CBSA.”
The person’s identity was not contained in the briefing note obtained by CBC News, nor were the reasons the person was considered a security concern and why he was granted permanent residency.
Last month the Opposition Conservatives called for a review and audit of the immigration screening system following a CBC News investigation that revealed a Somali gang member with an extensive criminal record was released from twice from custody while in Canada.
With files from CBC, Global
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