Canada’s new asylum law leaves 2SLGBTQ+ claimants fearing deportation
Verity Stevenson, CBC News, 13/ 5/2026
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In late March, though, Ahmed’s prospects for staying in Canada changed after Ottawa passed Bill C-12, a sweeping asylum reform barring people from making refugee claims if more than a year had elapsed since their first entry into Canada. The law is retroactive to June 24, 2020, and applies to claims made on or after June 3, 2025.
Ahmed is one of the estimated 30,000 asylum seekers in the country to have received a procedural fairness letter in the wake of the reform. The letter, which he received last month, informed Ahmed his refugee claim may no longer be eligible for consideration, because he arrived in 2021 and made his claim in December 2025.
“Every single thing I feared came into my brain at that moment,” Ahmed said. “I couldn’t breathe right. I couldn’t really think.”
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Joshua Eisen, in-house counsel at Toronto’s FCJ Refugee Centre, is one of several experts who presented before Parliament, calling for exemptions.
“It’s just so hypocritical that at a time where Canada has this self-image of championing this liberal global order … we’re introducing this extremely draconian legislation,” Eisen said.
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