If the expression “common sense” were not so overused, I would like to say that it is a victory for common sense that this judgment of the Court of Appeal which finally gives children access to subsidized daycare asylum seekers in Quebec.
Let us say instead, away from empty slogans, that it is a victory for all those who care about an egalitarian and inclusive society.
By confirming the right of asylum seekers to send their children to daycare centers and subsidized daycares, the Court of Appeal emphasizes that refusing them this access is discriminatory and contrary to the right to equality enshrined in the Quebec and Canadian Charters. .
In Quebec, we have long known that the universal reduced-rate daycare system put in place by Pauline Marois is not a luxury, but an essential tool of emancipation for women. It has enabled many mothers to enter the job market, escape poverty and be independent.
Strangely, while gender equality is a cardinal value of our society and we know very well that it is the most vulnerable mothers who would benefit the most from benefiting from subsidized daycare, it is precisely these mothers who have been deprived of it in recent years. In April 2018, without notice, Quebec decided to exclude asylum seekers from the right to access reduced-contribution early childhood care services following a directive issued by the Liberal government, which was maintained by the CAQ government elected the following fall.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Lawyer Sibel Ataogul
“That doesn’t make any sense!” “, said lawyer Sibel Ataogul, so outraged by the cause that she decided to defend it pro bono with his team.
The injustice of the situation was evident to the lawyer when she discovered with astonishment that an asylum-seeking mother whom she was helping to move did not have access to subsidized daycare.
“I was pregnant when we started the file. My colleague’s girlfriend was pregnant too. We both have children in subsidized daycare. We said to ourselves: we, with all our privileges and our resources, our two retired parents, we have access to daycare. And this woman, with three children, who comes from a country where she was oppressed, doesn’t have access to it? It just seemed horrible to me. »
The situation was all the more absurd as we are talking here about parents who have a work permit, but who are being blocked from accessing the job market. We are mainly talking about mothers who did not have family here who could look after their children and who, against their will, found themselves dependent on social assistance and completely isolated.
As if society is throwing these women a bouquet of contradictory messages at the same time.
Work, ladies! You are here in an egalitarian society where you have the same rights as men. You are our guardian angels in CHSLDs. But by the way, stay home with the little ones like in the 1950s, please! There are no guardians for guardian angels…
Let us be clear: this is in no way a question of demanding privileged access to subsidized daycare for the children of asylum seekers, in a context where access is already difficult for all families. It is simply a matter of giving them the same opportunity to register on the waiting list as other Quebec residents holding a work permit.
For what ? Because exclusion, which has prevented thousands of asylum-seeking parents since 2018 from working, integrating and learning French, ends up costing society even more. This is never a good calculation.
“Asylum seekers have a work permit. They have everything they need to be active tomorrow morning and to pay taxes. But until now, these people did not even have the possibility of registering on a waiting list to have a subsidized place,” recalls Maryse Poisson, director of social initiatives at Collectif Bienvenue, which has been supporting this cause since 2018. with the Daycare Access Committee.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Maryse Poisson (right), director of social initiatives at Collectif Bienvenue, during a rally in defense of the right to asylum in Canada, last June
By penalizing them, society as a whole is also penalizing itself, says Maryse Poisson, who meets women in this situation every day.
“I know several asylum seekers who have their beneficiary attendant certificate who could work tomorrow morning in CHSLDs… I know one who had her children looked after by her neighbor. The day her neighbor was no longer available, she had to resign from the CHSLD. »
[Les demandeuses d’asile] are people who can be there tomorrow morning to work essential jobs, but for whom it is impossible to contribute to the economy if they do not have access to subsidized child care.
Maryse Poisson, director of social initiatives at Collectif Bienvenue
At the end of her resources, one of them, who was a nurse in Haiti, ended up moving to New Brunswick to be able to work and have access to subsidized daycare.
It was still astonishing to see the Legault government defend all the way to the Court of Appeal a discriminatory directive which thus prevented thousands of mothers from entering the job market in Quebec. His stubbornness eventually backfired. Far from winning anything, the government lost even more resoundingly before the highest court in the province.
“What the Court of Appeal tells us is even stronger than what the Superior Court told us,” underlines Maryse Poisson.
We must now hope that the government does not take its stubbornness all the way to the Supreme Court. Because his “defeat” is in reality a victory for all of Quebec. For migrant mothers who see the main obstacle to their integration, their Frenchization and their emancipation finally removed. For their children who, with the benefit of a stint in daycare, will get off to a good start in their Quebec school career. For all of Quebec society which, starting today, will be able to count on the full contribution of all those who place their hopes in it.