OTTAWA - Former immigration minister Lloyd Axworthy, a prominent global champion for refugees, said he believes Canada is putting its reputation as a welcoming place for refugees at risk through recent federal policy shifts.

Those shifts, he said, include the Carney government's new border security bill, C-12, which would limit the ability of individuals who have been in Canada for more than a year to claim asylum.

It also would give the government new authority to cancel or suspend some immigration documents, including permanent resident visas and immigration applications, in what the legislation calls the "public interest."

"We're basically regressing into a kind of a bubble. And unfortunately, it's been pressured by a lot of the right-wing politics against immigration," Axworthy told

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