No question of “uprooting” asylum seekers, assures Quebec

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “We don't want to uproot families,” assured Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge in a press scrum on Thursday.

Even though François Legault has stated that he would “force” asylum seekers to move to other provinces, there is no question of moving anyone who is already “rooted” in Quebec, qualified Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge on Thursday.

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“We don’t want to uproot families,” assured the CAQ elected official in a press scrum, a day after the head of his government had maintained from Paris that the distribution across the rest of Canada of the 160,000 asylum seekers currently housed in Quebec should be done in a “mandatory” manner.

“We are human,” Mr. Roberge put it into perspective on Thursday.

Intercepted by the parliamentary press a few minutes before question period, the Minister of Immigration, Integration and Francisation drew up a typical portrait of the approximately 80,000 asylum seekers he wanted to see leave Quebec for other provinces.

“We're talking about people who are not rooted, who arrive here, who in some cases — 40% — do not speak French, who are still housed by the state, do not yet have a work permit or do not yet have a job. And there are a lot, a lot of them,” he explained.

For several months, François Legault has been asking Justin Trudeau's government to intervene to reduce asylum claims in Quebec by half. The idea would be to match the number of these non-permanent residents to the proportion of Quebec in Canada — 22%.

However, it was only on Wednesday that he first mentioned an “obligation” to travel. In February, former Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette responded to a report by the French Language Commissioner recommending that asylum applications be distributed by language that this distribution should be done “on a voluntary basis.”

More details to follow.