For several days now, Roxham Road has once again been at the heart of the debate. In doing so, we forget that we are talking about human beings, among the worst taken care of by humanity, and that Quebec and Canada have a duty to act to help them.
In this regard, the (accounting) content of the letter from the Premier of Quebec addressed to the Prime Minister of Canada sends shivers down my spine. It demands the renegotiation of the Safe Third Country Agreement (ETPS), in order to be able to better push everyone back to the United States, while mentioning, in passing, that these people are a threat to the survival of French in Quebec. It is about costs, management problems, capacity, never about the human drama.
The ETPS must not be renegotiated, it must be invalidated. The starting premise of this agreement is that the United States, like Canada, are two safe countries for anyone seeking asylum. This is why a person applying for asylum at a regular Canadian border crossing is automatically sent back to the United States, where they first arrived and where they must therefore make their application. However, the United States is not a safe country. They do not respect the principle of non-refoulement; routinely detain asylum seekers; criminalize migration; and do not recognize gender-based violence as a valid reason.
It is for these reasons that Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches have been challenging the designation of the United States as a safe country in Canadian courts since 2017. We claim that this agreement is contrary to Canadian law and to Canada’s international human rights commitments. The Federal Court rendered its decision in 2020 and agreed with us.
It concluded that the ETPS violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrining the right to life, liberty and security of the person, and that those returned to the United States ran the risk of to be detained by the immigration authorities in conditions which “shock the conscience”. The Federal Court judgment also referred to gender-based violence, which the United States does not recognize as grounds for seeking asylum, unlike Canada.
Unfortunately, the Canadian government appealed this decision. This is what should be the subject of our indignation.
Canada does not have to obtain the agreement of the United States to end the ETPS (article 10.2), and the effective invalidation of it would change things. Would there be no passage on Roxham Road overnight? Probably not. But the appeal of the latter would be greatly reduced, since the Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that everyone on Canadian territory is entitled to the protection of the Canadian Charter and to a full hearing concerning their application for ‘asylum. If it were not for the ETPS, a person presenting himself at any regular border post and requesting asylum would be welcomed.
This would change things, because these are human beings, who, like us, do not particularly want to find themselves in a situation of migration, even less irregular.
Ms. Fréchette, Messrs. Legault, Blanchet and St-Pierre Plamondon, Roxham Road is not the problem, but your comments, your “solutions” and your cynicism. Which evoke the most hackneyed populist speeches, which have never had any other objective than to stir up hatred in order to better manipulate the crowds… and the votes.
There are currently nearly 100 million forcibly displaced people in the world; 40% are in Africa, 16% in the Middle East, and 11% in Asia. For the whole of the Americas, it is 16%, of which a majority is Venezuelan and is in Colombia. Very few reach Europe or North America. That 40,000 people have passed through Roxham Road in 2022 takes on a very relative magnitude.
That being said, you are right, Mr. Legault, when you write: “It is not just one issue among others”. In fact, this is a real human issue that should be of the utmost concern to us, for strictly humanitarian reasons. It is not a question of “respecting borders”, but of helping people fleeing violence, conflicts, disasters, extreme poverty…
And the solution does not lie in simply closing Roxham Road. It’s not just there that the numbers have exploded in 2022. It’s a global phenomenon, despite all the walls and other border closures. For what ? This is the question to ask. The answers are multiple and complex, and all relate to human drama. They highlight the growing imbalances between a privileged part of the world, in a position of domination, and the rest. There is nothing to be proud of, and everything to feel concerned and responsible.
Added to this are the twists and turns of the bureaucracy. Of unspeakable inhumanity.
Ladies and gentlemen politicians, both federal and provincial: which side of history do you want to be on?