Since Prime Minister Legault has been calling for two years for asylum seekers to be distributed more equitably between the Canadian provinces, we can understand that he is running out of patience.
Even if Quebec now receives a number better proportionate to its demographic weight within the federation, it is true that the massive influx of recent years has increased the pressure exerted on already overwhelmed services.
As legitimate as his exasperation may be, the cavalier manner in which Mr. Legault behaves can only do him a disservice. Last July, Ottawa sent Quebec a document in which it reiterated what it had already been told verbally in the spring, namely that the forced transfer of asylum seekers to other provinces would go against the Charter. of human rights and freedoms, but he did not consider it important to analyze it “in detail”, preferring to tear off a new shirt.
If he himself considers the Charter as a simple “detail”, which Pierre Elliott Trudeau enshrined in the Constitution to annoy Quebec and give judges precedence over elected officials, it turns out that in English Canada, and in the eyes of Trudeau son, she remains a sacred cow that there is no question of shaking up.
Mr. Legault is putting the cart before the horse by proposing to send half of the 160,000 asylum seekers already settled in Quebec elsewhere in Canada — a number contested by Ottawa — without knowing exactly where. Right now, no one wants them, and continually repeating how much trouble they cause won’t make them any more desirable.
*****
This is not the first time that the Prime Minister has made empty threats. He had already starred in a film of this type a few years ago, when the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) was considering sending back immigrants who failed its “values test”, even though it was clear that a province would not He had no power to expel anyone.
The Canadian government itself did not consider a failure of its own citizenship test to be grounds for expulsion, but Mr. Legault did not bother to verify the legality of his proposal.
Last week, he did not appreciate Justin Trudeau taking him to task during his joint press conference with President Macron. He therefore took advantage of practically every stage of his visit to Paris to pay her back.
In Quebec, the Minister of Immigration, Jean-François Roberge, felt the need to soften the remarks that his boss had made with his usual delicacy of an elephant in a china shop. No, it was not about “uprooting families” or tearing children from their schools and sending them to Nova Scotia. No effort was wasted, the damage was done.
*****
Mr. Legault may have big shoes, but he has too much experience to think that Mr. Trudeau — even with the best will in the world — would be able to force the hand of recalcitrant provinces, while his government could fall from one week to the next, or that Pierre Poilievre would risk it.
The proposal of a solution as radical as expulsion even offers them a pretext to refuse any discussion. They can now present their lack of solidarity with Quebec as a refusal to associate with such an un-Canadian practice. Even the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, seemed a little embarrassed.
Time is starting to run out for Mr. Legault. The CAQ is 12 points behind the Parti Québécois (PQ), according to the latest Pallas Data poll, and it itself is now more unpopular in Quebec than Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre.
Nothing assures that the health and education reforms will yield the hoped-for results, without which the CAQ’s chances of re-election seem very slim, but the excessive weight of temporary immigration, all categories combined, can only delay the moment. where the population will be able to see a possible improvement.
In the meantime, Mr. Legault’s lawsuit against the Trudeau government almost exempts the PQ from promoting independence. The Prime Minister presents the question of immigration as such an existential issue that each rebuff he receives makes his plea in favor of federalism a little less convincing.
The way things are going, the Canadian Minister of Seniors, Steven MacKinnon, who accused the Bloc Québécois of preparing “winning conditions” by wanting to overthrow the Trudeau government for the benefit of the Conservative Party, will begin to think that Mr. Legault is doing also part of the plot.