The Canadian government is reportedly seeking the authority to enforce a mass cancellation of temporary visas for certain groups of visa holders from India and Bangladesh.
This is partly due to concerns of fraud from India and Bangladesh, two countries that have been termed "country-specific challenges" in a departmental presentation before the immigration minister's office, a CBC News report said, citing internal documents.
According to Canadian agencies like the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), as well as unnamed US partners, the aim was to identify and cancel fraudulent visitor visa applications.
In that regard, these agencies have formed a working group with the aim of aiding Canadian authorities in refusing and cancelling such visa applications.
The report added that a section of the presentation also showed how the mass cancellation powers sought by these agencies could be used in hypothetical situations, such as in pandemics, wars, or in the case of “country-specific visa holders".
However, Immigration Minister Lena Diab has only publicly talked about a pandemic or war as the reason behind why the government was seeking mass visa cancellation powers under a pending legislation, and not "country-specific visa holders".
This pending legislation is currently tabled in the Canadian parliament under Bill C-12—once a part of the contentious Bill C-2 (for the Mark Carney government's Strong Borders Act).
(This is a developing story. More details are awaited.)
