Canada's Manufactured Immigration Crisis: How the Right Is Echoing Trump's Fear Tactics

In recent days, right-wing politicians and media outlets in Canada have launched a coordinated campaign suggesting that the Liberal government is allowing dangerous criminals, and even terrorists, into the country under the guise of immigration.

At the center of the controversy is a relatively routine immigration process called criminal rehabilitation, which allows foreign nationals with old convictions, often minor, non-violent offences, to apply for entry into Canada after demonstrating that they no longer pose a public safety risk. The program has existed for decades and applies to everyone from permanent residents and international students to vacationing Americans with DUIs from decades ago.

But facts haven’t stopped the fearmongering.

Following the publication of a Globe and Mail story noting that 17,600 people had their criminal inadmissibility waived through rehabilitation over the past 11 years, right-wing influencers and Conservative MPs began raising alarms about terrorism. Online posts accused the government of "opening the floodgates" to threats, with some implying that these individuals could be linked to terror groups like Hamas or Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claims that are not supported by any of the available data.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre seized on the hysteria, referencing a Toronto Sun article that cited a lobby group called Secure Canada, describing them as a “terrorism watchdog.” The group’s CEO, Sheryl Saperia, is also affiliated with the Canada Strong and Free Network, a right-wing political movement. In a post on X, she criticized the Canadian government’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, claiming it showed "no moral or security sensibilities.”

Secure Canada is a registered lobby group with ties to U.S. neoconservative foreign policy circles. The group openly supports the Abraham Accords, a set of normalization deals between Israel and Arab states brokered by the Trump administration in 2020, agreements widely condemned by Palestinians for bypassing their demands for statehood while enabling Israel’s ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

This recent panic about immigration fits a pattern: one that echoes the playbook of President Trump, who has repeatedly manufactured immigration crises to justify mass deportations and now mass concentration camps. Trump tariffed Canada, citing unfounded claims that fentanyl was flowing across the northern border. Just two weeks ago, his homeland security advisor Kristi Noem suggested that South American gangs are “flocking” to Canada. No evidence was provided.

Taken together, these events raise troubling questions: Is this an early warning of Trump’s plan to once again target Canada with tariffs under the pretense of border insecurity? Is Poilievre helping to pave the way?

While Conservative voices amplify fears of “Tehran-linked terrorists,” they remain silent on Israel’s escalating assault on Gaza, where thousands of civilians have been killed, including women and children. The shift in focus from war crimes in Gaza to vague accusations of terrorist infiltration in Canada feels less like a legitimate security concern and more like a deliberate distraction.

It’s a narrative powered by fear, lacking evidence, and dangerously reminiscent of American-style propaganda. And if Canadians aren't careful, it could be used to justify everything from unnecessary trade penalties to sweeping changes in immigration, detention, and deportation policies.

What’s clear is this: there is no immigration crisis. But manufacturing one may serve the political ambitions of both Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre at the expense of truth, international diplomacy, and basic human decency.