Last week, Quebec Premier François Legault reached the peak of populism when he suggested that the government of Canada should set up refugee camps for asylum seekers arriving in Quebec and “mandatorily” remove half of the 160,000 asylum seekers already in the province.
Mind you, the premier did not use those exact terms. He talked about “waiting zones” modelled on the French “zones d’attente,” where some asylum seekers are detained for up to 26 days, usually before being sent back to where they came from. But let’s not fool ourselves: “waiting zones” are refugee camps. And “mandatory removal” does not mean anything if the use of force is not implied.
Even while acknowledging that Canada is facing an extraordinary surge in the number of temporary immigrants, including students, workers and asylum seekers, dealing with this challenge by opening detention camps and forcing people to move from one province to the other is not the Canadian way. Hopefully, it is not the Quebec way either.
Were they to be implemented, such measures would fly in the face of both the Canadian and Québec charters of rights. Questioned about this by reporters, Legault said that the matter was not his business but the federal government’s. This was very disappointing, but not surprising: the premier has already shown (Bill 21 on religious symbols, Bill 96 on language) that he does not care about Quebecers’ or anyone else’s fundamental rights.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s research on the French “zones d’attente” doesn’t appear to have been very deep. If it had been, it would have realized that the camps in question, in place since 1992, have not at all resolved the immigration issue in France. In 2022, according to the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, 331 ,000 immigrants entered France, legally or not, by far the largest number since at least 2006. That fact is surely part of the reason for the relative success of the extreme-right Ralliement national party in the latest French elections.
The premier believes that most Quebecers agree with him. Polling firms are probably in the field right now to see if he is right. However, nearly all commentators, experts and opposition parties have rejected his ideas as simplistic and unfeasible.
One wonders why Premier Legault is making such inept statements. The answer probably lies in the polls. Those have shown the CAQ trailing badly behind the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ). It appears that sovereigntists who had deserted the PQ for the CAQ, have gone back to their former party. They probably were convinced to do so by the PQ’s popular young leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who has promised to hold a third referendum on independence if he wins the next provincial election, to be held two years from now.
Legault is trying to lure them back by taking a hard nationalist approach on such issues as immigration and language. Will it work? This is far from certain. Since he was re-elected in 2022 with a huge majority, Legault’s credibility has taken a beating, mostly by his own fault. It began when he suddenly broke a solemn campaign commitment to build a “third link,” a mammoth tunnel linking Quebec City to the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. His government tabled a series of thick reports purported to conclude that the project was unnecessary. Then, after a byelection defeat in a Quebec City riding, the project was promptly brought back from the grave.
This was only the first of a series of clumsy announcements. The Caquistes, who were so good at making use of political communication during the COVID pandemic, appear to have suddenly lost their touch. Two weeks ago, the premier insisted that the PQ press its Bloc Québécois “comrades” to vote for a Conservative non-confidence motion against the Trudeau government. It was in the interests of Quebec, he said, that the Liberals in Ottawa be shown the door. This appeared to mean, commentators pointed out, that Legault thought a Poilievre government would be better for the province. The premier awkwardly backed off: “That’s not what I said,” he insisted.
Now come those outrageous proposals regarding asylum seekers. Mind you, the premier is addressing a real issue: Quebec has received around 40 per cent of asylum seekers arriving in Canada in recent years, while its share of Canada’s population is only 22 per cent. This situation imposes an additional burden on such public services as health care and education, which are already overstretched. The large number of temporary immigrants also exacerbates the housing crisis. Quebec has asked other provinces to take in some of those refugees. So far, this appeal has fallen into deaf ears.
The solution is to work constructively with the federal government and the provinces instead of angrily pointing the finger at them and coming up with appalling policies. However, it is unclear if Legault is really trying to find a solution. Rather, his only concern appears to be to score partisan points, regardless of the consequences for the vulnerable people who will be affected. To anyone who cherishes Quebec, this latest episode of the CAQ’s nationalist campaign is both sad and shocking.
National Post
André Pratte is a special adviser at Citizen, an international communications firm, and chair of the Quebec Liberal Party’s policy committee.