Growing numbers of Quebecers want Roxham Road closed, shows a poll commissioned by a group that has just filed a criminal complaint against Justin Trudeau.
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Now 68% of respondents want to close this irregular entry point at the border with the United States, through which tens of thousands of asylum seekers enter Canada each year.
Photo archive, Martin Alarie
Every year, like here on November 25, migrants try to enter Canada via Roxham Road in Montérégie.
This is shown by a Synopsis survey commissioned by the Justice for Quebec Group and conducted November 24-28, 2022 among 1,000 Quebec adults.
This is an increase from last spring, when 60% of Quebecers called for Ottawa to stop migrants from bypassing border crossings.
Meanwhile Canada is having a record year for asylum seekers arriving via this small road in the middle of the forest near Hemmingford.
Is Trudeau evading the law?
These results come as no surprise to Frédéric Bastien, founder of the Justice for Quebec group. According to him, the Prime Minister of Canada is flouting federal laws by maintaining this irregular point of entry.
Not only did Justin Trudeau tweet inviting refugees to come into the country in 2017, but the federal government also built permanent facilities on Roxham Road and installed signs advising how to apply for asylum and made an unofficial border post.
Last June, Justin Trudeau also said that “if we closed Roxham Road, people would move elsewhere”.
For Frédéric Bastien, this amounts to not applying the law because a crime could be committed elsewhere.
“We have laws that protect our border, that protect us, that we have passed and that are in effect. But the Prime Minister, for ideological reasons because of his rampant multiculturalism, says: I don’t respect the immigration law? Let’s see!” says Mr. Bastien.
criminal complaint
That is why he filed a lawsuit in the Quebec court yesterday, arguing that Mr. Trudeau is committing a criminal act by inciting refugees to enter Canada “illegally”.
Section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, argues the historian and professor, prohibits encouraging people to enter Canada illegally.
“The federal government does not enforce Canadian law along the borders and that is unacceptable,” he said.
The judge of the Quebec court now has approximately thirty days to decide on further processing of the case.
Opinion on the closure of Roxham Road to asylum seekers
- for closure
68% - against closure
32%
methodology
This Synopsis survey was conducted November 24-28, 2022 among 1,000 adults in Quebec. The data were weighted by age, gender, region, native language, and education to represent Quebec’s adult population.
Number of asylum seekers in Roxham Road
- 2017: 18,836
- 2018: 18,518
- 2019: 16,136
- 2020*: 3189
- 2021*: 4095
- 2022: 35,000 to 50,000
(estimates)
* Closed during the pandemic
(from March 2020 to November 2021)
Sources: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Le Journal
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