Aut Deportare Aut Judicare: Current Topics in International Humanitarian Law in Canada

The Canadian experience with international humanitarian law is dominated by cases involving foreign nationals accused of committing war crimes abroad. Canada has developed a system whereby these individuals can be pursued either through criminal prosecutions, or through immigration proceedings modeled after the Exclusion Clause in Article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention. In practice, the immigration remedies are far more frequently pursued. In the context of a debate that is relevant in many countries, this chapter examines the comparative characteristics of the two types of procedures and the merits of relying, as Canada does, almost exclusively on the immigration option. The chapter also reviews other current topics in international humanitarian law in Canada, for instance the domestic civil liability of a Canadian corporation for complicity in war crimes committed in other countries, as well as the role that norms of international humanitarian law play in the extraterritorial application of Canadian constitutional law. The author concludes by calling upon international tribunals adjudicating war crimes and crimes against humanity to consider as a useful resource the now extensive body of cases emanating from courts in Canada and other countries that have decided similar issues in the context of refugee and immigration proceedings.