The ''International Transfer of Offenders Act'' (french: Loi sur le transfèrement international des délinquants) is Canadian federal legislation. Passed in 2004, it allows Canadians who had been convicted of a crime in another nation to apply to serve their sentence, or a portion thereof, in a Canadian prison. The Act gives the

Minister of Public Safety The minister of public safety (french: ministre de la sécurité publique) is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet responsible for overseeing Public Safety Canada, the internal security department of the Government of Canada. The ...

the authority to approve or decline prisoners' applications for transfer. The Act was passed shortly before

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

was elected

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority the elected Hou ...

in 2005. Legal journalists and legal scholars criticized the Harper government for arbitrarily declining to approve transfers without adequate reasons. According to ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' on January 19, 2012, Justice Robert Barnes ruled that

Vic Toews Victor Toews (; born September 10, 1952) is a Paraguayan-Canadian politician and jurist. Toews is a judge of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba. He represented Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 until his resignation on ...

had failed to provide adequate reasons when he declined to approve the transfer of

Richard Goulet Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

. Barnes called decisions like this ''"pro forma"'' decisions, which were usually approved because it was in Canada's interest to know when felons were scheduled for release, and because it was in Canada's interest to enrol prisoners in the Canadian

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

system, so their transition from prison could be monitored. Barnes's ruling noted twelve other cases where Toews and his predecessors had declined to approve prisoner transfers without supplying an adequate explanation. In 2009 the

Canadian Civil Liberties Association The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA; french: Association Canadienne des Libertés Civiles) is a nonprofit organization in Canada devoted to the defence of civil liberties and constitutional rights.Dominique ClementCase Study: Canadian ...

criticized amendments the Conservatives were proposing to the law—amendments that relaxed the obligations the Minister of Public Safety had to explain his or her decisions. {{cite news , url = http://ccla.org/2009/12/04/benign-amendments-or-undermining-of-the-rule-of-law/ , title = Benign amendments or undermining of the rule of law? December 4th, 2009 , publisher =

, date = 2009-12-04 , archive-date = 2013-08-06 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130806001048/http://ccla.org/2009/12/04/benign-amendments-or-undermining-of-the-rule-of-law/ , url-status = dead

References

Canadian federal legislation 2004 in Canadian law *