Quebec asylum organizations have been planning for more than a month to walk the 73 kilometers that separate Montreal from Roxham Road, at the American border, to make their voices heard. And even though the Supreme Court confirmed on Friday that the Safe Third Country Agreement, which allows Canada to return potential refugees to the United States, is constitutional, they are more motivated than ever.
A few dozen people, including asylum seekers, gathered on Saturday morning at Place Charles-De Gaulle in Parc La Fontaine, in Montreal, for a first rally marking the start of the event. For three days, they will march to Roxham Road, located near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in the hope of being there at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon for a second demonstration.
These walkers denounce the closure, in March, of Roxham Road, which previously escaped the Safe Third Country Agreement (ETPS) and allowed asylum seekers to enter Canada without having first made an official request.
However, this route was closed when Canada and the United States renegotiated the ETPS to include irregular crossings following a political whirlwind that lasted several weeks in early spring.
Peggy Nkunga Ndona is one of the refugees who chose to take part in this weekend’s march. In 2018, after fleeing political repression in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it took her three months, pregnant with her third child, to walk from Brazil to Canada to finally arrive at Roxham Road.
Since then, she has lived in Montreal with her husband and three children. However, a problem awaits the small family, since the asylum application of Mrs. Nkunga Ndona and her husband was refused both at first instance and on appeal. Their last resort is to apply for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. The process is underway, but the decision has not yet been rendered.
After all she’s been through, Ms.me Nkunga Ndona says the closure of Roxham Road is simply “inhumane”.
“When I got out of the taxi at Roxham Road, I met volunteers who were there to distribute mittens, sweets, cookies and who said to me: ‘Welcome madam, you have come to the right place, here you are. you are safe.” Their words have followed me all my life,” says Ms.me Nkunga Ndona.
“Before, it wasn’t the best welcome in the world, but it was a very good welcome, even with the border police. Now, what is happening, what is being done, it really hurts my heart. It breaks my heart to see how migrants are left on their own and returned to the United States. »
When Mme Nkunga Ndona learned that a march was being organized to denounce the closure of Roxham Road, she did not hesitate to participate. It must be said that this is not the journalist and actress’s first attempt to change things: she even co-directed a film, The Hearingto present his story.
“Closing the borders only makes things worse. People will seek even more perilous means at the cost of their lives. I’m tired of seeing people die in search of a better life,” she says.
A symbol of hope
Many community organizations lamented the decision to close Roxham Road, saying the crossing had become “a symbol for thousands of people for whom hope was otherwise denied.”
“We are completely against this closure. This is, in our view, a violation of international law and of our commitments as a country to protect people in need of protection. We think that leaves a lot of vulnerable people in very difficult situations to face deportation or detention in the United States, ”says the director of social initiatives at the Welcome Collective, Maryse Poisson.
These bodies were tied to the possibility of the Supreme Court striking down the expansion of the ETPS, but the highest court in the land unanimously ruled Friday that the agreement did not violate section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms, which guarantees “the right to life, liberty and security of the person”.
The closure of Roxham Road is therefore maintained, which has not discouraged walkers — quite the contrary.
“It is a symbolic message. I see people every day who have walked for weeks, even months, to succeed in arriving in North America, because they were living in danger in their country of origin,” says Ms.me Fish.
“It’s not for fun that you leave your country of origin, it’s because you’re in great danger. We want to show our solidarity with asylum seekers by putting aside our little comforts for three days and then accompanying them, walking with them in the opposite direction. »
Not finished
According to the organizations concerned, the decision rendered Friday by the Supreme Court does not sound the death knell of their mission. Mme Poisson speaks of the verdict as a “half-defeat, half-victory”.
They point out that the highest court in the country did not consider section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which aims to guarantee the right to equality, regardless of ethnic origin, religion and of sex.
The Supreme Court instead referred this question to the Federal Court, since it considers that it is not up to it to make a decision, in the context where the lower courts did not examine the case from this angle.
The legal challenges surrounding the agreement are not over, assure the organizations, which insist that they will continue their mission to “draw attention to the humanitarian crisis that people seeking asylum are facing if immediate measures are not taken to put an end to the ETPS”.
“It’s a question that is political to know if the Canadian population wants this type of regime where we close our borders in an unequaled and hermetic way to people who need protection. It’s not just up to our courts to answer this question, it’s also up to the people,” says Ms.me Fish.
“We are able to welcome these people, we are able to integrate them. These are people who become our beneficiary attendants, who live among us, who integrate into society and who are extraordinary people. »
With information from Émilie Bergeron