Extract – Pragmatic | Climate refugees: when climate rhymes with human dignity

Sylvain Gaudreault graduated in history and law. He taught at the Cégep de Jonquière. He is known for his career in politics.

During this leadership race, I raised the issue of climate refugees a few times in the public sphere. While some of my opponents constantly reduced the question of the independence of Quebec to a drop in immigration thresholds, I tried to present a vision of an independent country playing a humanitarian role in the concert of nations and accepting to ” welcome its share of the flow of current and future climate refugees. In my opinion, the party must be inspired by Jacques Couture, Minister of Immigration in the first government of René Lévesque, and show openness as it did towards Vietnamese, Chilean or Haitian refugees in the 1970s and 1980. Take the summer of 1980 as an example. August 2 of that year, just a few months after the first referendum, when the PQ is in government and is preparing to be re-elected with a stronger majority than in 1976 , Press headline: “SOS Haiti: Quebec calls for amnesty for” illegal “refugees” ¹. It is unfortunate to note that, 40 years later, such a government positioning seems, for some, unthinkable …

The numbers are relentless. The UN foresees no less than 250 million climate refugees by 2050. Other reports state that they will be 1 billion ². Already, between 2008 and 2016, the annual average of travel related to climate change was 25.3 million people worldwide. ³. Obviously, we immediately think of the island states which are directly affected by the rise in sea levels, but other vulnerable countries are and will also be hit hard by floods, droughts and storms. They are mainly found in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. In Bangladesh, for example, the UN estimates that 19 million children are directly affected by the effects of climate change. We know how particularly sensitive this country is to flooding.

The link between climate change, natural disasters and other causes of population migration is indisputable. It is obvious that natural disasters, the quest for drinking water in certain arid regions or food insecurity, for example, cause massive population displacements. Likewise, several armed conflicts and the extreme poverty of certain regions can also be explained by the climate crisis or be accentuated by it. United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recognizes problem and plans to escalate in future years ⁴.

Considering the debates that have shaken public opinion since 2018 following the flow of refugees crossing the famous Roxham Road, we can imagine the polarizing speeches that await Quebec if the state does not prepare now for the growth of the migration of vulnerable populations fleeing natural disasters.

What is frustrating is that Quebec, within the Canadian federation, does not have the responsibility of processing asylum requests. It is trailing the federal government in this regard.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that we are collectively faced with a choice: either we wait for the stakes to escalate, strengthen border control, adopt restrictive policies and fuel xenophobic sentiment; or we anticipate this inevitable future reality and we organize ourselves now to be able to better manage this migratory influx in a spirit of humanism and openness. As for me, I choose the second option. And do you know what? It seems to me to be the most pragmatic.

However, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees does not recognize climate threats as a reason for granting this status. Although in 2020 the UN Human Rights Committee has admitted that returning asylum seekers to their countries of origin when their lives are threatened by the climate crisis amounts to exposing these people to harm. to their dignity, there remains a legal vacuum in international law ⁵.

As long as it cannot speak with its own voice within the UN, I hope that Quebec will act with Canada so that the latter recognizes that there are gaps in the protection of refugees due to new forms of travel. Canada and Quebec will have to review their laws and policies regarding the reception of refugees and immediate assistance on the ground. With support from Quebec, Canada could increase the pressure to develop a more coherent approach at the international level to meet the protection needs of people displaced by natural disasters.

1. Pierre Saint-Germain (1980)
2. Stéphane Parent (2019)
3. François Gemenne (2019)
4. Guy S. Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam (2017)
5. François Gémenne (2020)

Pragmatic – When the climate dictates political action

Sylvain Gaudreault

Overall, September 2021

146 pages