CAT/C/CAN/CO/7 (d) The implementation by the Correctional Service of Canada of a national indigenous plan to respond to the needs of indigenous offenders, including the creation of aboriginal intervention centres, which integrate programmes and interventions and engage indigenous communities to support offender release plans and reintegration of offenders into society; (e) The introduction of the expanded programme on alternatives to detention of the Canada Border Services Agency, in July 2018; (f) The adoption of “It’s time: Canada’s strategy to prevent and address genderbased violence”, in 2017; (g) June 2012. The adoption of the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, in 6. The Committee also welcomes the convening, for the first time in nearly 30 years, of the meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for human rights, held in December 2017, to discuss key government priorities relating to the State party’s international human rights obligations. 7. The Committee commends the State party for its continuing engagement on the issue of refugee settlement, noting that it plans to resettle 31,700 refugees in 2020. 8. The Committee appreciates that the State party maintains a standing invitation to the special procedure mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, which has allowed independent experts to carry out visits to the country during the reporting period. C. Principal subjects of concern and recommendations Pending follow-up issues from the previous reporting cycle 9. In its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/CAN/CO/6, para. 29), the Committee requested the State party to inform it of the steps taken to carry out recommendations whose implementation it considered a matter of priority, namely recommendations on security certificates under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (para. 12), immigration detention (para. 13), torture and ill-treatment of Canadians detained abroad (para. 16) and intelligence information obtained by torture (para. 17). The Committee appreciates the State party’s replies in this regard, received on 20 August 2013 under the follow-up procedure (CAT/C/CAN/CO/6/Add.1). In the light of the information provided, the Committee finds that the recommendations in paragraphs 12, 13 and 17 have not been implemented (see paras. 46–47, 34–35 and 42–43, respectively, of the present document) and that the recommendations contained in paragraph 16 have been partially implemented (see paras. 38–39 of the present document). Fundamental legal safeguards 10. The Committee takes note of the procedural safeguards set out in article 10 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, namely the right of detainees to be informed promptly of the reasons for their arrest or detention, to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right, and to have the validity of the detention determined by way of habeas corpus and to be released if the detention is not lawful. It regrets, however, the scant information provided on the measures and procedures in place to ensure the practical application of these and other fundamental safeguards to prevent torture and ill-treatment. In that respect, it has been reported that detainees have occasionally had difficulty gaining access to an interpreter or family members (art. 2). 11. The State party should ensure that all persons who are arrested or detained are afforded, by law and in practice, all fundamental legal safeguards against torture from the very outset of their deprivation of liberty, including the right to be assisted by a lawyer without delay, to have the assistance of an interpreter if necessary, to request and receive an independent medical examination, to inform promptly a close relative or any other person of their choice of their arrest and to be brought promptly before a judge. 2

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