By wanting to close Roxham Road to prevent irregular entries of asylum seekers into Quebec, the Parti Québécois (PQ) and its leader are behaving like Donald Trump, believes the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay.
In a press briefing at the National Assembly on Tuesday, the deputy for LaFontaine compared his political opponents to the former American president, who preached for the construction of a wall to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States.
Mr. Tanguay did not hesitate to qualify the PQ’s proposal as a “deportation policy”.
“I find it quite difficult to accept that a political party wants to close Roxham Road,” he said. What are they going to do, send the Sûreté du Québec to arrest people? Put them back on the bus that brought them here to send them where? Let’s see!
“For all practical purposes, when the Parti Québécois says that immigrants must be prevented from crossing, it is building a wall, as Trump said, with security agents,” he added.
The Liberals preach for “orderly immigration”, but throw the ball back into Ottawa’s court.
“Ottawa must renegotiate [l’entente sur les tiers pays sûrs], pleaded Mr. Tanguay. I hope they already have a strategy and a timeline.
“We want the United States to take more of their responsibilities, that they are not just a land of transition, continued the Liberal leader. They must not allow individuals to take these people, who need help, and put them on a bus. They are not merchandise. »
In Quebec to act, sums up the PQ
The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, again had to explain, on Tuesday morning, how he planned to put an end to the massive entry of asylum seekers via Roxham Road.
The member for Camille-Laurin has been insisting for several weeks that in the absence of a clear and rapid gesture from Ottawa to stem the crisis, the Quebec government can and should close Roxham Road.
Given that the province has jurisdiction over its roads, it would be possible, according to Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, to prevent access to Roxham Road, as New Brunswick had done for its roads leading to Quebec during the pandemic.
Pressed with questions from journalists, he was however unable to specify how the police would proceed.
“It is not up to me to define how the police would have to intervene, replied the elected official, during a press briefing held at the National Assembly. What we are saying is that if the federal government, after six years of instrumentalizing the process, intends to make everything permanent, it will require an intervention from Quebec. »
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon reminded journalists that the closure of Roxham Road during the pandemic had reduced the number of asylum seekers passing through to 3,000 or 4,000 annually; since its reopening, there have been ten times more.
In doing so, added the PQ leader, asylum seekers would be forced to present themselves at official border crossings to enter Canada. “These posts should serve in such a way that their arrival is not chaotic, but orderly,” he pleaded.
According to him, this is the only way to protect these immigrants from smugglers abusing their vulnerability, a phenomenon erected into a system and described by Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon as a “criminal human trafficking network”.
“The PQ is swimming in complete confusion”
Québec solidaire also believes that the Parti Québécois is on the wrong track in wanting to close Roxham Road and that it is Québec’s duty to welcome and protect refugees.
“The PQ is swimming in complete confusion, declared the united co-spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. If we managed to unilaterally close Roxham Road tomorrow morning, other clandestine routes would unfortunately appear and that would make it even more difficult to document the people who enter. »
The MNA for Gouin judges that Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon is “playing politics” on the backs of asylum seekers. “It’s simpler than proposing pragmatic solutions to solve the problem,” he said in a press briefing.
Québec solidaire is instead asking that the safe third country agreement be suspended until it is renegotiated, which would force migrants to cross borders in a “legal, safe and orderly” manner.
“We must recognize that this migratory flow exists, continued Mr. Nadeau-Dubois. It is possible to do it, but in a human way. »
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.