(Ottawa) Immediately requested, immediately rejected: judging “reckless” the request of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to close Roxham Road within 30 days, the Trudeau government promptly closed the door to the ultimatum on Tuesday.
“The Conservative Party claims that within 30 days, Justin Trudeau finds a way to close Roxham Road and use the resources it saves to proceed with the legitimate refugee applications that are pending at this time”, he summoned at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday.
How would Roxham Road be closed? The Leader of the Opposition did not offer details.
He also does not consider it “necessary” to suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement that binds Canada to the United States, or to withdraw from it unilaterally. “We are trying to complicate things too much,” he said at the microphone installed in the foyer of the House of Commons.
Pressure is mounting on Justin Trudeau to find a solution through the renegotiation of the Safe Third Country Agreement, especially since the President of the United States, Joe Biden, is expected in official visit to Canada next March.
“Joe Biden is not to blame [et] it is not up to him to solve the problem”; it is rather the responsibility of Justin Trudeau, who “broke” the immigration system, to tackle it, insisted Pierre Poilievre, already predicting that the Canadian Prime Minister will try to escape.
“Obviously, Justin Trudeau will try to blame other people,” he railed.
“Reckless” Ideas
Pierre Poilievre’s request was quickly dismissed out of hand by the federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser. Because in the absence of a plan “to manage the consequences”, blocking Roxham Road “will not solve the problem”, he argued on Tuesday.
“This will only encourage further irregular crossings, many of which put migrants at great risk and would put communities in an even more difficult position to meet needs,” the minister pleaded in a statement transmitted by his Cabinet.
He added that “the ideas presented by Pierre Poilievre” were “not only reckless”, but moreover, they lacked “depth and understanding”, while Canada “works to navigate through a global migration crisis “.
Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe is sorry for these procrastination, the consequences of which are, in his opinion, “unfortunately dramatic” both for the migrants who come to Roxham Road and for Quebec.
“On the one hand, we have the Conservative leader who is asking to close Roxham Road without specifying how he would do it and, on the other, we have a government that has the leverage necessary to resolve this crisis, that is to say say suspend the agreement on safe third countries, and who does not use it, ”he lamented.
Another Legault offensive
The leader of the official opposition made this exit in the wake of the publication of an open letter signed by François Legault on the site of the English-language daily The Globe and Mailtitled “It’s time to close the Roxham Road breach and uphold Canada’s borders”.
He again alludes to a tweet posted by Justin Trudeau in 2017, when the Prime Minister wrote to “all those fleeing persecution, terror and war” that Canada would be a welcoming land for them, in the wake of the adoption of the migration decree by Donald Trump south of the border.
“It was generous of Mr. Trudeau, and we have reason to be proud of our record in welcoming refugees […]but his good intentions have become a real problem for Quebec and Canada,” wrote Premier Legault in his missive.
The day before, he had sent a letter to his federal counterpart, making comments of the same nature, and also urging him to ensure that all asylum seekers who arrive in Canada via Roxham Road be redirected elsewhere in the country.
Last year, a record number of 39,171 asylum seekers were intercepted at Roxham Road, an unofficial entry point located in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in Montérégie.
With Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press