How does she see herself? How might it define itself? The question makes Julia smile. She even laughs, quietly. “You know, it’s not something I talk about in my personal life,” she says, before taking a few seconds to think.
“I would say that I am a humanitarian smuggler,” she finally says.
Ferryman. This is the fun activity that Julia does on the weekends or on vacation.
Because Julia is not the only one. “We are a group of just a few people,” she explains, without giving any further details.
On the surface we seem to be normal people. Some perhaps more politicized than others. But we are people who live our own lives.
In reality, Julia is not the real name of this woman, who is obviously in her 40s. “That’s the first name of the women in the group,” she tells us as we leave our studio. The men’s names are David.
By boat to Plattsburgh
We contacted exactly one of these Julias a few months before this meeting, pretending to be a Haitian migrant who was considering the idea of leaving Canada.
As Enquête revealed, several international organized crime networks specialize in the illegal passage of migrants across the Canada-US border. This expansion of their activities coincides with the intense activity of the Canadian and American police, which increases the number of arrests every evening.
As part of our investigation, we have spoken to several smugglers in recent months. Julia’s contact details were provided to us by a source close to the humanitarian community, who, however, had no knowledge of the motivations of this group, which we believed to be criminal.
After several written and then telephone conversations via secure messaging, Julia arranged to meet us at a café in a working-class neighborhood north of Montreal to share the details of this secret journey.
You must travel light and carry a backpack. People will deliver to you around Plattsburgh.
The town of Plattsburgh, New York, about fifty kilometers from the Quebec border, is the final destination of this illegal journey.
How do we get there? It is unclear. By boat, by car or on foot. Maybe even all three at the same time. A passage through Lake Champlain was one of the options used, as we later learned.
But one essential element fascinates us. At no point in our conversations does Julia ask us for money, unlike other criminal networks that ask for several thousand dollars.
There are no costs, she confirms. We are people who believe in a world without borders. We think it’s unfair and that it shouldn’t exist. We don’t do this to make money.
A few days before this trip, we finally revealed our true identity to him and offered him an interview to understand her motives. Since Julia was hesitant, it was one of her colleagues who finally agreed to meet with us a few weeks later.
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Julia meets a migrant in a café.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Mathieu Blanchette
There is to help, not to exploit
This other Julia is aware of the presence of these criminal groups on the Canada-US border. This is why, she emphasizes, she got involved in this illegal activity. [On veut] Help people who need to cross safely without it costing them money they don’t have. And, above all, without being threatened with danger, she says.
“We are here to help people, not to exploit them,” she explains. The last thing we want is to be associated with the image we have of smugglers. We don’t want people to be afraid of us or hide things from us. This could jeopardize your safety and operations.
How do migrants find their contact person? Unlike other groups that amplify their announcements on social networks, Julia and her colleagues operate solely through word of mouth. “We’re really trying to look at long-term viability and our own safety,” she adds.
We have knowledge and key people in specific communities.
To avoid being discovered during their journey, we carry out certain checks that criminal networks do not carry out. There are different routes that we can take depending on the weather conditions, depending on the reality of the people who want to cross and also depending on their number.
For example, a few days before a departure we check whether your path is the same as the last time we saw it. So without police cameras. This group also uses rental cars all the time, but the costs are covered by their own network, she emphasizes.
She admits her team has never been busier. As time went on, she believes the news spread more and more, while also believing that the difficulty of living here would lead many undocumented immigrants to live in the United States instead of Canada.
[Aux États-Unis] Unfortunately, there is a universe, an economy, that allows you to live an undocumented life in a somewhat more dignified and autonomous way.
But their activities are not limited to bringing people to Uncle Sam’s country. Since Roxham Road was closed, there have been increasing calls for migrants to be smuggled into Canada, she says.
It’s half and half, she describes. When Roxham was open I would have always recommended it [de passer par là]although Roxham was no panacea.
Altruistic smugglers, but identical risks
Julia’s entourage is unaware of this double life. But she is of course aware of the high legal risks, even if we try not to think about it too much.
We know we are breaking certain rules [mais] We never asked for any money. We tell ourselves, perhaps wrongly, that if we get caught, we hope the justice system can understand if something goes wrong.
There is no difference between these different groups in terms of the law and its application. Regardless of the underlying motivation, the fact remains that a crime was committed, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) responds.
In recent months, the latter has increasingly intercepted American colleagues at the border. Nearly a thousand Quebecers were arrested by American agents in September. That is four times more than last year.
Smugglers who claim to have altruistic motives face the same risks and penalties as others. It is wrong to believe that because there is no money exchange there is no crime.
According to the RCMP, any person who facilitates the illegal passage of migrants will be arrested and properly investigated.
These individuals, however well-intentioned, are putting migrants at enormous risk and jeopardizing their health and safety. In the event of a tragedy, the people responsible for organizing the passage of these migrants would face significant legal consequences, recalls the spokesman for the federal institution, Charles Poirier.
In Julia’s eyes, her group’s activities respect ethics and human rights. “I fundamentally believe that it is a good cause and that it is the right thing to do,” she believes.
I know that it is possible that my actions have saved a life, or certainly improved lives. Then it justifies the cost for me.
In collaboration with Michael Deetjens and Martin Movilla
Header illustration by Mathieu Blanchette