The Intersection of Racialized Crime and the Forced Removal of ‘Foreign Criminals’ from Canada: A Critical Analysis

This paper presents a critical analysis of the intersectionality of race and crime by examining the criminalization of the Black community in the Greater Toronto Area. It contextualizes the removal of ‘foreign criminals’ through Canadian deportation policies, focusing on the evolution of Bill C-44, the “danger to the public” clause, and its impact on the Afro-Caribbean community. The use of qualitative interviews involving three service providers in Trinidad and Tobago who work with deportees, as well as a young man who was recently deported from Canada, are used to highlight the negative impact of Canadian deportation policies on deported persons removed from the nation-state, as well as on the receiving country. This paper draws attention to the ways in which intersecting oppressions of race, class, spatial location, and citizenship status single out racial ‘minorities’ for increased surveillance, and justifies their perceived criminality.