Visiting Paris, Legault passes the buck to the federal government on immigration

Photo: Michel Saba The Canadian Press Quebec Premier François Legault was received Thursday at the Hôtel de Matignon by his French counterpart, Michel Barnier.

Faced with the vehement criticism that his proposal to move half of the asylum seekers currently in Quebec through a mandatory program has raised in Ottawa — and even within his own ranks — François Legault felt that it was not up to him to say whether the solution Ottawa chooses will be consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On an official visit to France, where he met his counterpart Michel Barnier and gave a speech at UNESCO, the Quebec premier felt that he did not need to ask himself this type of question. “I am not the one who is going to start analyzing the impacts of the different solutions on the [Canadian] Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That is up to the federal government [to do]. They want to have this power ? It is up to them to find the solution.”

On the third day of his visit, the prime minister repeated that he wanted us to draw inspiration from “the different models that exist in different European countries” without specifying which ones. “It is not up to me to choose the model, it is up to the federal government. It is the one that has let far too many asylum seekers into Quebec, it is up to it to bring this number down to a reasonable figure.” »

In the Prime Minister's entourage, however, we already have a few examples in mind. We are thinking in particular of this measure that allows the French government to remove the asylum seeker allowance, an amount of approximately 200 euros per month, from migrants who do not respect the place of asylum assigned to them. In an internal document from a federal government working group published on July 4 and entitled European models in the right to asylum, the authors said on the contrary that they favored a voluntary transfer so as not to deviate from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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At a press briefing at the major technological innovation fair of the Francophonie, FrancoTech, where he welcomed President Emmanuel Macron to the Quebec kiosk, the Prime Minister did not repeat the word “mandatory” that had sparked anger the day before. He said he did not know whether a mandatory transfer of asylum seekers from one province to another would potentially violate the charter. “I don't have those views,” he repeated.

François Legault also wants the federal government to take inspiration from France, where the time to study asylum applications is only four months, compared to three years in Canada.

France and Quebec “shaken by immigration”

The highlight of this official visit to France was the meeting this Thursday with the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier. A meeting that the latter described as “very important”.

In this meeting of more than 45 minutes, the two men discussed at length the problems of the Francophonie, whose 19th summit begins Friday in Villers-Cotterêts, but also immigration. Mr Barnier has indeed made reducing the number of asylum seekers and enforcing obligations to leave the territory one of the priorities of his mandate.

“When you see Ms. Le Pen's support, you know that this is an important subject for all politicians,” said François Legault. “I heard Emmanuel Macron say last week that the French felt shaken by immigration. I feel exactly the same thing about Quebecers.”

In front of a hundred UNESCO officials and delegates, the Prime Minister then gave a rather heartfelt speech to encourage member countries to amend the 2005 Convention on the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. He recalled the historic role played by Quebec, which he presents as a “humanist nation” that “has not been assimilated.” And the Prime Minister concluded that, “together, we can have an influence on the web giants.”

“Due to its geographical and linguistic position, Quebec has a very original and essential voice in this matter,” confided the secretary of the convention, Toussaint Tiendrebeogo, originally from Burkina Faso. The first meeting of the UNESCO think tank on the subject was held in Quebec City last May. The resolutions that will soon be formulated could be adopted in February 2025.