(Villers-Cotterêts) Last spring, the Legault government proposed to Ottawa to forcibly relocate asylum seekers living in Quebec to other provinces. And the Trudeau government told him no, warning him that it would be contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This was explained by a federal government source on Friday. Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and François Legault participate in the Francophonie Summit, which is held at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts. No formal meeting is planned between the two men, who have had skirmishes on the subject of immigration in recent weeks.
On Thursday, François Legault affirmed that he has not verified whether his request for forced transfers of asylum seekers respects the Charter and that he does not intend to do so either. “It’s up to the federal government” to do the analysis and “find solutions to the problem it created,” he insisted.
However, according to a federal government source, Prime Minister Legault’s office raised the idea of forced relocations during discussions with Ottawa last spring, before the Legault-Trudeau meeting on June 10 on immigration.
“There was, coming from the government [québécois]at a certain point, the questioning: can’t you just force them to move to other provinces? “We had already made it clear to the Legault government: we will not force anyone,” said this source. “Technically, we can’t do it. »
Ottawa was therefore not surprised by the request for forced relocations made this week by Mr. Legault as part of his mission to Paris.
“But we didn’t think he would go that far, to say that, because I think we had done our job of making them understand that it’s not possible,” the source said. It had been said clearly in Quebec, according to her, that under “the Charter and the Constitution, we cannot force someone”.
The Minister of Immigration at the time, Christine Fréchette, and the Minister of Canadian Relations, Jean-François Roberge, who is also responsible for Immigration today, both “understood” this reality. “And on the civil servant side, they understand that it’s not necessarily something that’s viable.”
Furthermore, “it is out of the question” for Ottawa to use the derogation clause in the Charter to impose forced relocations. “We will respect the Charter,” said this source.
On Thursday, Quebec distributed a federal government document dated July 4 which contains a passage demonstrating that Ottawa has “no legislative power to force the transfer of asylum seekers to another province” and that “the asylum seekers Forcibly displaced asylum seekers could assert their right to freedom guaranteed by Article 7 of the Charter. »
“I don’t have these opinions” showing that the mandatory transfer would contravene the Charter, Mr. Legault told journalists Thursday. “I haven’t analyzed that, so I can’t tell you if you’re right or not” about the constitutionality of mandatory transfers. “And I don’t intend to analyze it either. »
“It is not me who is going to start analyzing the impacts of the different solutions on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It’s up to the federal government,” he argued.