Appeals court upholds Canada-U.S. asylum-seeker agreement

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO, April 15 (Reuters) - A Canadian appeals court on Thursday upheld a Canada-U.S. agreement to turn back asylum-seekers, overturning a lower court ruling, siding with the federal government and setting up a possible Supreme Court showdown.

The ruling is a victory for Canada's federal government, which had launched an appeal defending the agreement and, by association, U.S. immigration detention practices, which it said do not "shock the conscience."

At issue was whether the Safe Third Country Agreement, a pact signed in 2002 and under which asylum-seekers trying to cross between Canada and the U.S. at a formal border crossing are turned around and sent back, violates an asylum-seeker's fundamental rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Aurora Ellis)