The language criterion cannot be the main factor in the distribution of asylum seekers across Canada, according to the CAQ government. If he still wants to see more of these immigrants heading to other provinces, this must be done “on a voluntary basis” first, indicated the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, Thursday.
The elected official of François Legault’s government thus reacted to the most recent report of the French language commissioner, Benoît Dubreuil, who recommended on Wednesday that mastery of the French language become a criterion in the distribution of asylum seekers. In this scenario, asylum seekers who do not speak French would be redirected to the rest of Canada.
“Exactly a year ago, the federal government put in place a system to ensure that oxygen was given to Quebec, to ensure that all asylum seekers were distributed more widely in Ontario and the provinces. Atlantic”, recalled Minister Fréchette, Thursday, in a press scrum with her colleague at the French Language, Jean-François Roberge. We are asking to take this approach again and to ensure that, on a voluntary basis, asylum seekers are [redirigés]. »
Asked about the French language criterion, Ms. Fréchette repeated that “we are asking the federal government to act on a voluntary basis for the distribution of asylum seekers.” “The means he will use to do so is at his discretion,” she added.
At the beginning of the year, Prime Minister François Legault sent a letter to his federal counterpart, Justin Trudeau, to demand that asylum seekers, who arrive largely through the Montreal-Trudeau airport, be better distributed across across Canada. “We have a critical situation in Quebec,” Ms. Fréchette said Thursday, asking Ottawa to “come out of its bubble.”
Further details will follow.