They were playing all for all in court and now they are claiming victory: asylum seekers who have not been allowed by the government for four years to send their children to subsidized daycare will have access to it again. The Superior Court partly sided with them in recognizing that the government did not have the powers to reinterpret an article of the regulation on daycare services and that, therefore, they should have the right to send their children in a day care center at $8.50 a day.
” [Le Tribunal] declares that article 3 of the Regulation on the reduced contribution was adopted without legislative authorization and is therefore ultra vires and void,” concluded Justice Marc St-Pierre of the Superior Court. The latter, however, rejects the plaintiff’s arguments regarding the discriminatory nature of the situation.
“It’s a victory for us,” said Sibel Ataogul, a lawyer at Melançon, Marceau, Grenier and Cohen. “We are happy first of all because it will immediately restore access [aux garderies subventionnées] asylum seekers, especially extremely vulnerable women who have work permits but cannot work because of this. It was a particularly unfair situation. »
Mand Ataogul also points out that the judgment is “good news for democracy” since it calls the government to order and calls on it “to respect the laws passed by the legislator and not to arrogate powers that do not have not been granted,” she said.
A forbidden reinterpretation
In 2018, Luc Fortin, the Liberal Minister of Families at the time, decided to reinterpret section 3 of the Regulation respecting the reduced contribution of the Educational Childcare Act, which until then gave access to subsidized child care centers for anyone holding a “work permit and [qui] resides in Quebec mainly to work there”. Overnight, the government had no longer considered that they were here “mainly” to work and asylum seekers had therefore found themselves excluded from this definition.
This had notably generated absurd situations, as in the case of a couple who had been able to send their first child to a subsidized daycare center but not their second, although born in Canada, as reported by The duty.
According to the Comité Accès Garderie, this volte-face by the government was linked to the massive influx of asylum seekers at that time. However, according to Maryse Poisson, director of social initiatives for the Welcome Collective and a very active member of the committee, this decision, which she invites the government to respect, has just reversed the momentum. ” [Ça] will finally restore a right flouted for years, essential to dignity and which affects thousands of families. I will finally be able to announce to families that they will be able to work, learn French and leave the house. »
To the question, “was the government empowered to adopt section 3 establishing the categories of persons eligible for the reduced contribution?” “, Judge St-Pierre said “no”, thus giving reason to the lawyers of the asylum seekers. He recalled that even if the government, through its regulation on the reduced contribution, determined certain criteria to decide who was entitled to it, the Act respecting educational childcare services did not authorize such a categorization. .
Political echoes
Since the reinterpretation of Liberal Minister Luc Fortin, the Accès Garderie Committee has never stopped fighting and has multiplied its pleas, particularly with the three levels of government. In February 2019, the Caquiste Minister of the Family, Mathieu Lacombe, said he was sensitive to the cause, but would have returned the ball to the federal government, saying that it lacked funding. Two months ago, the members of the CAQ had rejected en bloc an amendment presented by Québec solidaire, and supported by the opposition, wanting subsidized childcare services to be accessible to all children, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.
QS MP and spokesperson for the Family Christine Labrie is all the more happy to see this “victory” for asylum seekers after seeing her proposal rejected. “But I can’t believe they had to go to court to have this right recognized,” she says, adding that it’s obvious that this access to subsidized places will allow them to learn French and contribute to Quebec.
The office of the Minister of Families, Mathieu Lacombe, recognizes that the judgment now allows asylum seekers to have access to subsidized daycare, but argues that it is too early to decide whether the decision will be appealed. “We are analyzing things and we will make a decision afterwards,” said his press secretary, Roxanne Bourque.