Article content

Compared with the U.S., Canada may seem like paradise on Earth for families seeking asylum.

But we still have a long way to go to live up to that reputation, say researchers, who give Canada a failing grade when it comes to our practice of detaining children for immigration purposes — including in jails and correctional facilities.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canada gets failing grade for detaining migrant children: researchers Back to video

At a conference in Montreal on Wednesday, World Refugee Day, Hanna Gros of the University of Toronto and Delphine Nakache of the University of Ottawa presented Canada’s “scorecard” on the detention of children, giving it 49 out of 100 — and placing it around the middle of the rankings with other countries. (The official scorecards from around the world will be released in August.)

“Over the last two years, Canada has begun to address problems in the system,” said Nakache, referring to a policy directive issued by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale in November that said Canada will detain children only as a last resort.