(Quebec) After having suggested calling the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), then forming an “enclave” on Roxham Road to block the way to migrants, the Parti Québécois (PQ) is now proposing to distribute leaflets there.
The PQ is calling for the closure of Roxham Road and has been thinking aloud for weeks on how to achieve this. In Parliament, his strategy has been compared to that of former US President Donald Trump.
At a press briefing on Thursday, the PQ MP for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, seemed to temper the speech by proposing a “temporary measure” consisting of taking “a gesture that illustrates our desire for it to be closed”.
The gesture in question would be a “deployment, […] information provided” at the border by police or state agents to indicate to migrants that Quebec’s reception capacity has been “reached”.
According to Pascal Bérubé, these people must understand that Quebec “cannot guarantee (them) all the adequate services to which (they should) be entitled in the name of dignity”.
Pressed with questions on the scenarios evoked, the elected representative of Matane defended himself by saying that his party “tries to imagine as best as possible […] ways” to close Roxham Road.
He acknowledged that “we can’t really prevent” people from entering, and denied that his leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, had spoken of forming an “enclave”. However, the idea had indeed been mentioned in a press briefing earlier this week1.
“We must not focus on the means, argued Mr. Bérubé. Instead of judging ourselves on the means that we try to imagine as best we can, let’s retain our desire to be in tune with Quebecers and to close it. »
The PQ ultimately proposes to build “a wall” to block the road to migrants and advocates a policy of “deportation”, accused Tuesday the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Marc Tanguay.
Last year, a record number of 39,171 asylum seekers were intercepted at Roxham Road, an unofficial entry point located in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in Montérégie.
The Caquist government of François Legault demands that Ottawa assume the costs incurred and that it renegotiates with the administration of American President Joe Biden the agreement on safe third countries.