The border between Canada and the United States is 8891 kilometers long. The border between the United States and Mexico is 3150 kilometers. There are more than half a million illegal residents in Canada. In the United States, there are 11 million.
Keep those numbers in mind when discussing Roxham Road and the possibility that Joe Biden’s next visit to Ottawa is the time to change the Safe Third Country Agreement, which would be the key to this whole crisis. .
By the way, the number of 500,000 illegal residents in Canada is the maximum estimate made by Statistics Canada. The federal agency candidly admits that the exact number is not known and that it would be “between 20,000 and 500,000”. In the United States, of course, the phenomenon has been studied more closely and for a long time.
US authorities have a border three times smaller to patrol than Canadian authorities. And they easily admit that they have lost control.
By the way, there is a 725 kilometer wall on the United States-Mexico border, most of which was built in the 1990s. Under Donald Trump, much has been said about it, but only added to it 83 kilometers.
The Safe Third Country Agreement is at the heart of the situation at Roxham Road. It was negotiated at the request of Canada after September 11, 2001, the Chrétien government fearing an influx of refugee claimants arriving from American territory.
It’s because of Canada’s reputation as a country that grants refugee status relatively easily, certainly more so than the United States.
Often blamed these days is Justin Trudeau’s tweet in January 2017, after President Donald Trump closed US borders to nationals of Muslim countries at the start of his term. But Canada’s reputation for being open to refugees goes way back.
Back in the days of the Berlin Wall, all of Eastern Europe knew the trick of taking a vacation to Cuba and getting off the plane during a refueling stop at Gander Airport in Newfoundland.
There have been all kinds of waves like this, including Portuguese people getting off planes in Montreal and Toronto claiming to be Jehovah’s Witnesses and victims of religious persecution.
In the summer of 1987, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney even recalled Parliament urgently in the middle of summer following the arrival of Tamil refugees by boat. In short, Canada’s reputation as a welcoming land was established long before Roxham Road was discovered.
For many people these days, the solution would be for the Government of Canada to unilaterally withdraw from the Safe Third Country Agreement. It may seem appealing at first sight. But even if it would condemn Roxham Road, it would not solve the problem.
The agreement means that you can apply for refugee status provided you do not do so at an official point of entry, such as a customs post or an airport. This is also what means that if we close Roxham Road, another or several others will open up a few kilometers away.
Roxham is certainly not a solution, but at least it is a marked and safe place. And it’s much better than trying to cross a forest in the middle of winter.
It is needless to say that Canada does not have the material means and the personnel required to patrol a border of almost 9,000 kilometres, especially when we know that the Americans are unable to do so on a border three times smaller and in putting a lot more resources into it.
This makes it pointless to ask to “close the border”. Even less with the means of a provincial government, even if this is the solution proposed by certain political parties.
But the most important development of the last few weeks is to see the premiers of the other provinces accept the principle that the Roxham refugees can only be a Quebec problem and that they too must welcome refugees. Because it is a national obligation, as was the arrival of Syrian or Ukrainian refugees. We will see how this translates in practice, but it is a great step forward.
Which is much more likely to help solve the most pressing problems in this file than to think that we can quickly renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement.
Hopefully the subject will be on the agenda when President Joe Biden visits Ottawa next month. But when two leaders of G7 countries meet, they are much more likely to talk about Ukraine or the risks of a global recession than the unfortunate Roxham Road.