Toronto’s Sanctuary Policies for Protecting Its Undocumented Citizens

抄録

In 2013, the Toronto City Council adopted a motion reaffirming the city’s “commitment to ensuring access to services without fear to immigrants without full status or without full status documents.” As one of the first Canadian cities to implement a sanctuary policy, Toronto has made city services available to undocumented Torontonians who can now live without the fear of being asked for proof of status. The purpose of this study is to introduce the idea of employing Toronto’s sanctuary policy in Japan.

The first chapter describes the outline of Torontoʼs sanctuary policy, which is based on providing “access to City Services for Undocumented Torontonians (Access T. O.).” Accordingly, “access without fear” is pivotal in this policy. The second chapter provides a brief history of the policy and clarifies that it was drafted not only to protect the human rights of undocumented Torontonians but also to maintain Canadaʼs economic growth to which they had contributed.

The third chapter addresses the tensions between the provincial government, Toronto city government, and the federal government caused by the implementation of the sanctuary policy.

In the concluding remarks, this study presents two perspectives on the study of Toronto’s sanctuary policy: defiance by the municipal government against federal immigration laws and policies and coordinately upholding Canada’s obligations under international human rights treaties such as International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.