Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from other political parties got here together to lift the Pride flag on Parliament Hill.
But an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the U.S says the federal government’s recent border law is putting people vulnerable to being sent back to countries where they face persecution.
Devon Matthews, Rainbow Railroad’s chief program officer, said her organization is anxious about its working relationship with Ottawa because the federal government reduces the variety of refugees it admits and cuts the organization’s funding.
She said it’s also alarmed by a brand new law requiring that refugee claims be made inside a yr of the claimant’s first arrival in Canada.
“It has nothing to do with the the explanation why someone can have waited or why someone doesn’t meet the one-year bar,” Matthews told The Canadian Press.
“It actually is only only a technical eligibility requirement that doesn’t serve to really give the chance for the person to talk to the intricacies of why they might have had to attend.”
A former Middle Eastern international student who lived as an openly gay man in Canada is amongst those left in limbo by the brand new law.
The previous student told The Canadian Press he filed a refugee claim after photos of his time here in Canada were discovered once he returned home, putting his safety in danger.
But he said that because he studied in Canada for two-and-a-half years starting in 2022, he has been told his refugee claim is ineligible under the brand new border law, C-12.
The Canadian Press has agreed not to call him or his home country as a consequence of risks facing his relations still there.
“I used to be supporting the LGBTQ community and I used to be in a variety of events and a few stories from social media that leaked out in my society back there,” he said.
“So some incidents and … some pictures had fallen into bad people’s hands they usually threatened to tell the police and to beat me up. So it happened greater than once, and when the last time happened I felt that I can’t live like that and I will likely be living in fear.”
Several Middle Eastern countries have morality laws that punish LGBTQ individuals with prison terms. The refugee claimant said his family would also face social and economic repercussions due to his orientation.
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“While you get discovered as a LGBTQ person, that’s it, that’s the tip of your life. You’ll be able to’t work, you may be arrested in your own home,” he said. “And naturally, the scandal for the family, since it’s not something that’s accepted.
“So I ran because if that happened, I’d spend my life in jail. And even in the event that they didn’t put me in jail for a very long time, that’s it for my profession, that’s it for my life.”
He said his refugee claim was proceeding easily and had been approved for file review — a less intensive examination for low-risk refugee claims.
But when C-12 passed earlier this yr, he became one in every of roughly 30,000 individuals who received letters saying their refugee claim may now not be eligible because they first entered Canada greater than a yr before making their claim.
The one-year rule applies to refugee claims made on or after June 3, 2025 and retroactively to first arrivals on or after June 24, 2020.
While refugee claims filed by people in this case won’t be sent to the Immigration and Refugee Board for review, they’re still eligible for a pre-removal risk assessment, or PRRA. The PRRA has a historically low approval rate since it tends to be the first appeal avenue for rejected claims on the IRB.
The PRRA process is primarily paper-based but interviews might be requested if an officer needs more information.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab told a Senate committee hearing in February that when it’s clear people should give you the chance to remain in Canada based on documented evidence, “they get a ‘yes’ immediately.”
The federal government has said it introduced the one-year rule partially because some people were making asylum claims as a way to stay in Canada after their temporary visas expired.
Diab told the Senate committee that 37 per cent of refugee claims made between June 3, 2025 and Oct. 31, 2025 — roughly 19,000 documents — could be deemed ineligible under the one-year rule.
Suzy Newing, the Middle Eastern former student’s lawyer, said her client’s ineligibility is being challenged in court on constitutional grounds arguing that he has a right to an oral hearing — which just isn’t guaranteed within the PRRA process — and anti-discrimination provisions.
She said there are a selection of the explanation why an LGBTQ+ person may not make a refugee claim inside a yr of first arriving in Canada.
“For instance, perhaps they got here to Canada before recognizing or expressing or coming to terms with their sexual orientation, after which they begin to specific that here. Which may not necessarily occur inside one yr of coming to Canada,” Newing said.
“They may have known (their orientation) all along, but managed to cover it of their country of origin. After which the one-year bar essentially forces the timing for once they would come out to their relations, because that’s often when the chance materializes … when individuals would come out to their relations once they’re here in Canada.”
Many Federal Court challenges of refugee claims being deemed ineligible under the brand new law have been referred to file review, so a judge is predicted to rule broadly on the constitutionality of the one-year rule.
The Middle Eastern refugee claimant will now need to wait for either a PRRA or a court decision to learn whether he will likely be allowed to stay in Canada.
He said that even when he’s allowed to remain, his trust in Canada has been shaken.
“Now I feel like I’ve been attacked by everyone, by the federal government, by the Canadian people they usually just want people to go away,” he said.
“Kicking those people out, you’re killing them because they are usually not returning back to live happily and wonderful and the whole lot. You might be pushing them back to their deaths.”
Matthews said Rainbow Railroad saw its largest-ever variety of requests for assist in 2025 — greater than 20,000, a 51 per cent increase over 2024. She said the organization is on target to receive much more pleas for help this yr.
Matthews said Rainbow Railroad is considering increasing its political activism in response.