Canadian Bill reviewed by Parliamentary Standing Committee

22 May 2026

The Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE) has chaired a parliamentary discussion as part of its ongoing study on Bill C-219.

The bill was introduced by MP James Bezan in 2025. The discussion highlighted the bill’s proposals to amend the Special Economic Measures Act:

• Expanding visa bans to “immediate family members” of people sanctioned under the Act or related regulations, to align with EU and US practice;

• Adding transnational repression as a designation criterion;

• Requiring the Minister of Foreign Affairs to report on the number of detained “prisoners of conscience” (individuals detained or physically restricted, contrary to human rights standards, solely because of their identity of their conscientiously held beliefs) in foreign countries.

The discussion was in conjunction with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. The Centre proposed:

• Adding the arbitrary detention and the torture of prisoners of conscience as standalone designation criteria;

• Publishing the number of detained “prisoners of conscience” abroad into Global Affairs Canada’s travel advisories;

• Making the publishing of data on prisoners of conscience subject to the prisoner’s family’s discretion, rather than to that of the Minister of Foreign Affairs;

• “Embedding” data on prisoners of conscience into sanctions legislation.