Liberal Border Bill Clears House—and Other Last-Minute Moves on Parliament Hill Before Christmas Break

The Liberal government’s second attempt at passing a bill aiming to strengthen the border and immigration rules was successful before the House of Commons went on Christmas break.

The last few days of proceedings were eventful on Parliament Hill, with another Tory MP defecting to the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois managing to amend the Combatting Hate Act to remove the religious defence to hate speech in the Criminal Code.

Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, passed third reading in the House on Dec. 11 and will be reviewed in the Senate when it returns from the holiday break in February 2026.

The Liberals’ first attempt to beef up border security and immigration rules with Bill C-2 had hit a wall, with opposition parties and civil liberties groups expressing concerns it was infringing on privacy rights. Bill C-2 seeks to give Canada Post the power to open letters without a warrant and would facilitate warrantless access to subscriber data to security agencies.

The revised version of the bill came by way of C-12 introduced in October, without the most controversial clauses. It gives expanded powers to the border agency, including to inspect goods destined for export. It also grants more powers to the minister of immigration in matters of information sharing or to intervene on refugee claims.

Conservatives reviewing the bill in committee had proposed a number of amendments to C-12, and some were ultimately adopted on Dec. 11 in the House.

Tory MP Michelle Rempel-Garner, who serves as her party’s immigration critic, sought to limit the ability of the minister of immigration to “cancel or vary” immigration documents as stipulated in the bill.

The bill states that the government can, if it believes it is in the “public interest to do so,” cancel or vary permanent resident cards, temporary work or study permits, and similar documents.

One concern raised is that this could be used by Ottawa to give blanket permanent residency to temporary residents, opening a path to citizenship.

“Liberals want to arbitrarily grant citizenship to whoever they want,” Tory MP Pierre Paul-Hus said in the House in late November. “In Bill C-12 the Liberals want to give themselves the power to change temporary residents’ visas to give them permanent residency.”

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab responded that her government is “focused on the future” and that it would reduce the number of temporary residents.

The bill adopted in third reading states that the government in power does not have the authority to grant permanent resident status or to “grant or extend study permits or work permits.”

This last part on temporary permits was included in the bill by way of a Rempel-Garner amendment adopted in the House on Dec. 11.

Other amendments proposed by Rempel-Garner were voted down in committee, such as to prevent non-citizens convicted of a serious crime to claim refugee status.

Other Bill

Another bill that was passed by the House in the dying minutes of the fall sitting on Dec. 11 is C-4, which contains affordability measures the Liberals had campaigned on.

The changes contained in the bill, which affect taxation, had already been approved by the House in the spring in a ways and means motion. Those include reducing the income tax, removing the GST on new houses for some first-time homebuyers, and repealing the consumer carbon tax, or fuel charge.

Other bills did not move as smoothly through the House in the fall, including Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act.

Liberals and Conservatives have accused each other of delaying proceedings on the bill in committee. Liberals had cancelled committee meetings after it became known they intended to back the Bloc Québécois’ amendment to remove the religious defence to hate speech in the Criminal Code.

Liberals eventually came out publicly in support of the amendment and voted in favour on Dec. 9, saying that religious freedom will remain protected. Conservatives and religious groups have said this move will create uncertainty about whether reading religious scripture or expressing opinions based on it could be construed as being hateful.

Conservatives have attempted many times to stop the clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-9 in committee to focus instead on Bill C-14, the Liberals’ piece of legislation to reform the bail system.

Even though there have been obstacles to moving legislation forward, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said the fall sitting has been “extremely productive” with the introduction of bills to tackle crime and make life more affordable.

“It’s been a massively successful introduction of crime legislation,” he said on Dec. 11.

Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, said Liberals fell short of fulfilling their promise to bring down the cost of living or make streets safer.

“They brought in a watered down bail law that [Prime Minister Mark Carney] and his party have been blocking ever since,” he said on Dec. 11.

Poilievre faced another defection from his party the same day, with Toronto-area MP Michael Ma crossing the floor to the Liberals, bringing them one seat short of a majority.

Ma said in a statement issued by the Liberal Party that he joined the Liberals to “focus on solutions, not division.”

Poilievre reacted by saying that Ma chose to “endorse the very policies he was elected to oppose.”

MacKinnon told reporters on Dec. 12 there are other Tory MPs who are “dissatisfied” with their party. Ma’s move came a month after Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont left the Conservatives for the Liberals.

Poilievre will face a leadership review in January 2026. The House is expected to resume sitting on Jan. 26, 2026.