François in Paris: How the Quebec premier kicked off an asylum firestorm from a summit in France

OTTAWA — The trip was initially about the Francophonie summit.

A few days before the international conference in France, Quebec Premier François Legault went to Paris to discuss the province’s relations with its “cousin français.” The French language was on the menu, as was immigration.

On Wednesday, Legault told reporters that the Canadian government should act decisively to respond to his repeated requests to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the province. Quebec maintains that of the 285,000 asylum claimants who arrived in Canada last year, 160,000 were in Quebec. And the premier wants half of them to go elsewhere.

“Currently, everything that is proposed by the federal government is on a voluntary basis for asylum seekers, and on a voluntary basis for the provinces. What we want is for half of the asylum seekers who are currently in Quebec to be transferred to other provinces,” he said.

Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller appeared stunned by Legault’s remarks this week.

Miller wondered aloud if his province’s premier was asking the federal government to “go get (newcomers) from their homes and send them to Ontario”? Miller was adamant that “there is a legal aspect” the government must consider and that “you can’t force people to move.”

“What (Legault) is saying is that we get rid of these people,” he said.

“People who are already established, to tell them, ‘this morning or within such and such a time, you leave, we’ll put you on the bus,’ it’s unacceptable and inhumane,” Quebec Liberals interim leader Marc Tanguay said, in response to the premier’s suggestion.

In an interview with the National Post, Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge dismissed criticism of his premier and government.

“There is a lot of bad faith in the comments,” Roberge said.

“He did not use xenophobic, intolerant terms, or say that Quebec did not want immigrants,” he added.

Roberge said that people who are integrated into Quebec society and who have “roots” in their community should not be relocated against their will.

According to the minister, claimants who are housed by the government, don’t have a work permit, don’t have any family members, would be very happy to immerse themselves in their community whether they are in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver.

On Thursday, Legault doubled down on his suggestion. “They have to move half of them,” he insisted.

However, some politicians and lawyers have suggested the measure is unconstitutional because it would restrict freedom of movement.

How exactly would these relocations be deployed? “It’s not up to me to choose the model,” said Legault.

“When we’re talking about asylum claimants, we don’t shovel the issue in the feds’ yard, it is the responsibility of the federal government,” added Roberge.

In a press conference on Thursday, the chair of Quebec’s human rights commission was questioned about the premier’s comments. He seemed baffled by the “hypothetical” nature of those comments.

“We don’t have any bill, any mandates or rulings to comment on. If it happens, we will look into it,” said Philippe-André Tessier.

The vice-chair of the commission, Myrlande Pierre, added that she did not want to react to the premier’s remarks, because for the commission, “it is important that these issues be addressed in all their complexity.”

Legault did not stop there. A few moments later, still from France, he acknowledged to reporters that he did not have a legal opinion on mandatory transfers.

“I’m not the one who’s going to start analyzing the impacts of the different solutions on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that’s up to the federal government,” he said.

“I have not analyzed that, and I do not intend to analyze it either,” he added.

Miller’s office declined interview request from the National Post for this article. In the minister’s inner circle, a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter said that any suggestion of an “obligation” for asylum seeker to be relocated is a “hard no”. “It’s not going to happen,” the source said.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who is a lawyer, called Legault a “fabulator” for improvising and inventing solutions in “an imaginary world”.

“No one in Quebec should take seriously the hypothesis that the RCMP, at the request of François Legault, would arrive at people’s homes to send them to Saskatchewan,” said St-Pierre Plamondon.

Roberge said the premier’s move was not improvised, “totally deliberate and in line with what we’ve been saying for six months.”

And Quebec recently mentioned the “mandatory relocation” to other provinces and to Ottawa.

Documents obtained by the Post suggest the federal government recently told provinces that relocation must be “voluntary” and that both the newcomer and the province must agree to the transfer.

“Part of this is ensuring that claimants are fully aware of their options and receive accurate information from provinces and territories about the communities where they may choose to reside,” the document says.

That’s not enough, according to the Quebec government. But its battle is fraught with challenges. In Quebec City, the opposition has been vocal in its denunciation of the premier’s comments and approach to the issue.

The Parti Québécois, which is leading in the polls and wants Quebec to become a country so it can control its own borders, has publicly ridiculed the premier’s suggestion. In addition, its leader believes that Legault is harming Quebec’s reputation.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the Bloc Québécois declared that “the notions of forced relocations and waiting zones are not approaches and terminologies” that it can “easily accommodate.”

But for Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s reputation is intact. And the federal government will have to, once again, adjust to the province’s requests.

“We make suggestions (at the federal level) to say: ‘you lack ideas, well we’re going to give you some’,” he said.

National Post [email protected]

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