People without status | An “inclusive” regularization program called for

(Montreal) More than a hundred people demonstrated this afternoon in Montreal to demand the establishment of an “inclusive” regularization program for undocumented immigrants in the country.

Vincent Larin
The Press

Last month, federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that he was working on introducing a massive regularization program for non-status migrant workers.

On Sunday, many insisted on the importance of making this program “inclusive” and that it avoids certain pitfalls encountered by previous versions, including the regularization program for Quebec’s “guardian angels”.

This, supposed to offer permanent status to undocumented workers who worked in CHSLDs during the COVID-19 pandemic, excluded certain employment groups, recalled the deputy of the New Democratic Party Alexandre Boulerice, in an interview on the sidelines of the demonstration.

“We really had to provide services to people. The people who worked in the kitchens, the security guards, those who did the cleaning, were not included,” he explained.

More openness demanded

Canada would have become “like a hitch” to temporary immigrant worker programs, for example in the field of agriculture, notes Alexandre Boulerice. But “if these people are good enough to work, to make our industries work, they must have a path to permanent residence,” he says.

The president of the Central of Democratic Trade Unions (CSD), Luc Vachon, for his part called for the establishment of a program “faster and with more openness”. “That we already recognize that those who have been here for a long time, that it would be time to consider them as full residents of Canada,” he said.

Present at the demonstration as spokesperson for the Center for Immigrant Workers, Mamadou Konaté experienced the limits of this program himself, even though he had worked as a housekeeper in the red zone in three CHSLDs, including the one where he contracted COVID-19.

Recall that in September 2020, Mr. Konaté voluntarily went to the Canada Border Services Agency (PHAC), in order to regularize his status. His asylum application was then rejected and he was arrested on the spot.

“When you don’t have status, all your rights are violated. You work, you do all the tasks like everyone else, but you do not benefit from any public service, ”he summed up.

Requests in Quebec

The thirty or so community organizations represented on Sunday at the demonstration addressed their demands to Ottawa, but also to Quebec, more particularly to the new Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Christine Fréchette, as it is a shared competence.

The number of people with irregular status remains unclear in the country, as it is by definition a hidden population. However, the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration estimates their number “between 20,000 and 500,000 people”.

In Quebec, this number would fluctuate between 80,000 and 100,000, although this is an estimate based solely on the observations of immigration lawyers, indicates the outgoing president of their association, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.

Note that other similar gatherings also took place at the same time in other cities in Quebec, including the Capitale-Nationale and Saguenay.