Quebec two-faced on immigration
I haven’t posted about recent revelations that the U.S. is actively funneling people toward Roxham Road, because it’s not directly a Montreal issue, but I’m struck today by the contrast between these two pieces: Ottawa is now directing incomers toward Ontario because Quebec immigration minister Christine Fréchette says Quebec’s capacity to welcome people has been exceeded.
At the same time, we have now reached a total of 300,000 temporary workers in Quebec. While keeping a lid on actual immigrants, we keep bringing in more “temporary” people to whom we don’t owe the same social debt. But at the same time, those “temporary” people can get right to work without having to speak French, so the CAQ is even being hypocritical about that. So long as the wheels keep turning…
DeWolf 18:26 on 2023-02-14 Permalink
This makes my skin crawl. The CAQ doesn’t like immigrants, but they’re okay with creating an increasingly large underclass of foreign workers who have limited rights and no potential to settle here permanently.
Ian 22:01 on 2023-02-14 Permalink
I think the one thing that everyone is kind of dancing around is that these aren’t “illegal immigrants”, these are REFUGEES. Our government is actively trying to ban REFUGEES.
Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration of human rights:
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Daniel 07:00 on 2023-02-15 Permalink
It’s not a Montreal issue exactly, but on the other hand it really is because so many people have ended up here.
Bill 96 prompted me to volunteer with Welcome Collective/Collectif Bienvenue. They work really hard to help people who are here seeking asylum. The work has been very rewarding and I think genuinely useful for the recipients of my effort. I do it mostly from home. Highly recommended if you’re interested.
carswell 09:51 on 2023-02-15 Permalink
The question for the 1995 referendum was famously convoluted and, opponents claimed, misleading. Surveys showed that some likely oui voters believed they were giving the government a mandate solely to negotiate a new deal with Canada. (Parizeau later admitted that the only offer he intended to make was one Canada couldn’t accept, triggering separation.) Don McPherson wrote a column about it suggesting the PQ consider changing the question to one where yes was the only possible answer, something along the lines of “Do you love mother and apple pie?”
While my facetious idea was “Do you want to have your cake and eat it too?” (one of the more prominent oui posters actually featured a Canadian loonie), the question I suspected Parizeau’s was code for was one nobody openly asked: When, as appears demographically inevitable, old-stock Quebecers find themselves about to become a minority in an independent Quebec, will they maintain a genuine democracy or rig the system to stay in power?
Odd these days to see the answers to both my questions becoming clearer. Legault’s separation without actually separating — where action is taken on nearly every front to eliminate or minimize Canada’s presence and role in the province, including shredding the constitution and never acknowledging that Quebecers are fortunate to live in one of the best countries in the world — without the trauma outright independence would bring, is coming to seem like an affirmative answer to the first. And things like the influx of temporary workers, who live here and pay taxes but have no representation or practical path to it, and Bill 96, which, among other things, discourages “undesirables” from working in government and putting down roots, are increasingly providing an answer to the second.
Ephraim 10:14 on 2023-02-15 Permalink
@Ian – It depends on who it is. Haitians in the US have a special status (TPS) and the reason they were allowed to stay has nothing to do with refugee status, but was a response to the Haitian earthquake. Which is why the rate of refusal for refugee status for Haitians illegally entering the country is really low (and worse, they could have stayed in the US, but by crossing, lost their TPS. And if I remember correctly being refused has a high cost, as you are required to pay for your own plane ticket and sign an IOU for it. Also, when you cross illegally, you have very limited rights… you do NOT want to be in a detention centre for illegal immigrants, they pack them in there!
Tim 14:41 on 2023-02-15 Permalink
I was under the impression that the federal government was in charge of the temporary worker programs. They could choose to change things if they wanted and Quebec wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. Does Quebec have its own program?
I am personally embarrassed and ashamed at how we, as a country, take advantage of temporary workers.
Kate 15:26 on 2023-02-15 Permalink
Quebec has enough control over its immigration that it has a whole government minister devoted to it.