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“As of September 15, there are no people detained in a provincial correctional facility,” said the Canada Border Services Agency, which is responsible for immigration enforcement, including the custody of those who break immigration laws.

“The Government of Canada has taken the necessary steps to ensure that the CBSA can securely manage individuals who would have previously been detained in provincial correctional facilities.”

Ottawa had used and paid maximum-security provincial jails to hold high-risk immigration detainees, who were mixed with the general criminal population and sometimes fell through the cracks between federal and provincial jurisdictions. The inquest recommended using federal facilities for accountability and oversight.

At one point, more than 70 provincial facilities were used to hold federal detainees deemed to be a flight risk or a safety threat to the public or to themselves. In 2021, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International launched a joint campaign to call on all provinces to end their immigration detention agreements with the federal government.

The arrangement between Ontario and Ottawa ended Sunday and was not renewed or extended. “The Agency had assessed each detainee held in provincial custody on a case-by-case basis and determined the most appropriate placement,” the CBSA told the Star in an email.

It said there are specific criteria to be admitted to the federal correctional facility in Quebec, and spots are reserved for those who require a high degree of supervision and control, and who cannot be safely managed within the three immigration holding centres run by the border agency itself.

The secure facility can house up to 25 adult male detainees, and currently has two immigration inmates.

Following the end of the immigration detention agreements with the provinces, the border agency since March has been retrofitting two of its own facilities — in Laval, Que., and º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍø— to house some of the higher-risk detainee population. The work, expected to be completed this fall, includes the interior construction of higher-risk living units, the expansion of administrative space and other requirements necessary to operate an all-risk facility.

The º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøholding centre will have capacity for 29 high-risk detainees, while Laval will be able to hold 24. The remaining CBSA facility in B.C. will continue to provide two rooms for high-risk inmates.

As of Sept. 15, CBSA said 13,503 people — or 98 per cent of those requiring its supervision — were on alternatives to detention, released and monitored through community case management, regular reporting to authorities, electronic monitoring and cash bonds.

In addition, 163 people were detained by CBSA: 160 in its own holding centres in Toronto, Laval and Surrey, B.C.; two in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines; and one in an unspecified facility (such as RCMP detachments/local police cells).

In 2023, an inquest was held into the death of immigration detainee Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan, who was detained at an Ontario maximum-security facility in Lindsay pending deportation. The former Somali refugee with a history of mental illness was found unresponsive in a segregated cell and taken to hospital, where he died in custody days later. 

The call to end immigration detention in provincial jails was among the 53 recommendations made by the jurors.