Extradition is the process by which an accused or convicted person located in one country is surrendered to another country, pursuant to a request by an extradition partner, to face trial or the imposition or enforcement of a sentence. Extradition is an important tool of international cooperation used by Canadian and foreign police and prosecutors to fight serious crime at a global level.
The Minister of Justice is responsible for the administration of the Extradition Act and the implementation of Canada's extradition agreements, and for dealing with requests for extradition to and from Canada. At the surrender stage, the minister must personally determine whether to order the person surrendered to the requesting state. The minister's authority under the Extradition Act is otherwise, in large part, delegated to legal counsel in the international assistance group, or IAG, a group within the Department of Justice. The IAG receives the request for extradition and the request for provisional arrest warrants, which are used in urgent circumstances to arrest a person before the extradition request is received. The IAG determines whether to seek a provisional arrest warrant and whether to proceed with an extradition request. In this function, the IAG's role can be likened to prosecutorial discretion and is not subject to political influence.
Canada may extradite only to an extradiction partner, which is defined in the Extradition Act as a state or entity with which Canada has a bilateral or applicable multilateral treaty, with which Canada has entered into a specific agreement, or whose name is listed in a schedule to the act. Canada has 51 bilateral extradition treaty partners, and there are 34 designated partners identified in the Extradition Act. Canada is also party to several multilateral conventions containing provisions on extradition, such as the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crimes, the United Nations Convention against the Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
There are three key stages to the extradition process in Canada. First is the issuance of the authority to proceed, the decision by the IAG exercising the delegated function of the minister to authorize the commencement of extradition proceedings before the Canadian courts. Second is the extradition hearing, which is also referred to as the judicial phase of the extradition process. Finally, there is the ministerial phase. This is the decision of the minister on whether to order the surrender of the person sought for extradition to the requesting state.
Having provided that general overview, I'll hand it over to my colleague, Ms. Henchey.