🍁 civid v1

Status and scope

• Bill C-12 received royal assent on March 26, 2026. It amends laws on border operations, drugs, immigration and asylum, financial crime and sex-offender registration.
• The supplied text is truncated during Part 9. The descriptions of Parts 10–12 therefore rely on the bill’s summary, not their full provisions. Some measures have separate coming-into-force dates or depend on regulations.

Part 1 — Customs

• Requires owners or operators of specified international bridges, tunnels, railways, airports, wharves and docks to provide, equip and maintain facilities free of charge for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) program administration and enforcement.
• Requires people transporting goods destined for export, and operators of specified warehouses, to give officers access to relevant premises and open packages or remove packaging on request. Entry to a dwelling requires consent or a judicial warrant.
• Restricts certain lawsuits over past payments or costs for facilities, including proceedings already pending.

Parts 2–3 — Drugs and policing

• Part 2 creates a temporary, accelerated route for the health minister to schedule precursor chemicals under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, with related changes to precursor regulations. Temporary listings end under specified conditions, including when the stated period expires or the substance is added to another specified schedule.
• Part 3 authorizes regulations exempting designated police or military police members, and people acting under their direction, from certain Criminal Code offences involving conspiracy, attempts, being an accessory after the fact, or counselling in relation to drug or cannabis offences. It also confirms the past validity and effects of specified existing police-enforcement regulations.

Part 4 — Coast guard

• Transfers responsibility for coast guard services from the fisheries and oceans minister to the minister of national defence.
• Adds security activities, including patrols and information or intelligence collection, analysis and disclosure, to coast guard services. It authorizes the responsible minister or another designated minister to collect, analyze and disclose information or intelligence.
• This Part came into force the day after royal assent.

Part 5 — Immigration information sharing

• Authorizes the immigration minister to disclose departmental personal information within the department for specified official purposes.
• Permits disclosure of specified identity, immigration-status and document information to federal and provincial government entities and Crown corporations under written agreements addressing the information, purposes and limits on further use or transfer.
• Restricts provincial recipients from sharing such information with foreign entities without the minister’s written consent and compliance with specified international obligations. Also authorizes regulations on sharing immigration information with federal departments and agencies.

Part 6 — In-Canada asylum

• Eliminates the designated countries of origin regime and changes how claims are handled before referral to the Refugee Protection Division. The minister may specify required information and documents; an eligible claim is referred after specified requirements are met.
• Allows the Refugee Protection Division to determine whether an unreferred claim has been abandoned when required information is not supplied or an examination is missed. The claimant must have an opportunity to make representations. The minister may determine that an unreferred claim has been withdrawn following written notice from the claimant and may reinstate it on application.
• Generally prevents consideration of a claim or appeal while the person is outside Canada. If the person voluntarily returns to the country against which they claimed protection, the applicable division must deem the claim or appeal abandoned in specified circumstances.
• Provides for regulations requiring representatives for certain minors or people unable to understand a proceeding or application. It also requires monthly reports to Parliament on removals, including specified demographic and criminal-background information.
• Some changes apply to pending claims; several provisions take effect on dates set by order in council.

Parts 7–8 — Immigration orders and asylum eligibility

• Part 7: Allows the Governor in Council to order that specified applications not be accepted, or that pending processing be suspended or terminated, where it considers this in the public interest. It can also cancel, suspend or vary specified documents or conditions. Stated public-interest purposes include administrative errors, fraud, public health, public safety and national security.
• These powers can affect foreign nationals’ visa, permit and travel-authorization applications and documents, including permanent resident cards. Orders affecting people in Canada require the immigration minister’s recommendation and the public safety minister’s concurrence. Orders may address whether application fees are repaid.
• The minister