The governments of both Canada and the US are threatening or testing measures to further close off the Canadian border as the escape route of last resort for those fleeing the US.

Representatives of a coalition of more than 300 refugee rights, civil liberties, gender justice, and migrant advocacy groups came to Parliament Hill in Ottawa today to speak out against Bill C-2, the “Strong Borders Act” introduced by the new Liberal government of Canada. They called for withdrawal of Bill C-2 as a “dangerous shift toward Trump-style anti-immigrant policies and attacks on the rights and freedoms of all residents” of Canada.

Despite its name, Bill C-2 is predominantly a surveillance bill, not a border bill. It would authorize a wide range of seizures of digital devices and data, location tracking, compelled assistance of communications and cloud services providers in extracting and providing the government with data from and about their customers and users, and conversion of requests from the US and other foreign governments into orders legally enforceable in Canada, among a wide range of other Big Brother tactics. Bill C-2 appears to be inspired by, but goes well beyond, the most invasive surveillance practices of the US government.

Bill C-2 is first and foremost a threat to Canadians’ freedom and an attack on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But it’s also a dire threat to the right to leave the US and to the ability of people in the US to exercise, if need be, their right to asylum.

As it pertains to the border, the most significant changes that Bill C-2 would make in Canadian law would be to close most of the few remaining legal pathways for refugees or asylum seekers, especially those fleeing the US, to enter or remain in Canada.

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