Global Affairs Canada is warning of a significant surge in complex consular cases as worsening global instability fuels unprecedented demand for services to protect Canadians abroad. A newly released ministerial briefing binder prepared for Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand reveals that the government may soon need to “calibrate and manage” Canadians’ expectations for consular support, including the possibility that citizens will have to pay more and receive less, as crises grow in scale and frequency. The binder, compiled when Anand assumed her role in May, outlines the department’s growing financial and logistical strain as it manages evacuations, detentions, death penalty cases, and geopolitical flashpoints worldwide.
The report notes that Global Affairs Canada has had to deploy evacuation personnel 3.4 times more frequently over the past five years than in previous periods. Factors such as increased international travel, Canada’s demographic diversity, armed conflicts, civil unrest, climate disasters, and earthquakes have all intensified the volume and complexity of consular work. Between March 2023 and March 2025 alone, GAC helped 5,231 Canadians evacuate from crisis zones including Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Haiti, and areas affected by Hawaii wildfires. In Haiti, the consular response for 2024 cost nearly $10 million and assisted 681 Canadians, while $40 million was allocated for evacuations and preparation in the Middle East. These rising costs are straining departmental resources, especially since the $25 consular services fee attached to passports has not been updated since 2013, even after the introduction of the 10-year passport.
The documents provide a stark picture of Canadians in peril abroad, noting eight known death penalty cases across multiple countries and almost 1,000 Canadians in foreign custody. Four Canadians are currently on death row in the United States, where federal and state governments can both impose capital punishment, and U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed the Justice Department to systematically seek the death penalty. In China, Abbotsford, B.C., resident Robert Schellenberg remains on death row for drug-smuggling charges, while Ottawa reports that China executed four Canadian citizens in early 2025. In India, Canadian citizen Tahawwur Hussain Rana was extradited from the U.S. to stand trial for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and could face capital punishment if convicted. As of April, up to 18 Canadians were detained in India, with 120 new consular cases opened there in the previous fiscal year, ranging from arrests and medical emergencies to family-related matters. Additional death penalty cases have been identified in Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The binder underscores that Canadians’ expectations for consular assistance remain high, even as crises grow more complex and costly. In the last fiscal year alone, Global Affairs opened 7,208 consular cases and delivered 271,340 routine services such as passport renewals and citizenship certificates. Consular matters accounted for roughly 40 per cent of the department’s media inquiries in 2024. With financial shortfalls mounting, Global Affairs is developing a plan for “sustainable crisis funding” and considering service delivery reforms. The department has also elevated hostage diplomacy as a diplomatic priority, following China’s 1,000-day detention of two Canadians, by designating a senior official for hostage affairs and coordinating with international partners to set norms against arbitrary detentions. Minister Anand has appointed MP Mona Fortier as her assistant for consular cases, though no parliamentary secretary currently holds a public consular title in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.
This growing wave of consular emergencies marks one of the most challenging periods in decades for Global Affairs Canada, as it balances rising global instability with finite resources while trying to meet Canadians’ expectations for protection and assistance abroad.