Several dozen protesters gathered outside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s constituency office in Montreal on Wednesday morning to put pressure on the federal government to oppose the decision announced last Friday to close the irregular entry point.
According to the organization, this change would put the lives of thousands of families and people at risk, leaving them no choice but to take riskier paths.
“We ask the prime minister [Justin] Trudeau to end the Safe Third Countries Agreement to ensure migrants can safely cross the Canada-US border and to end Canada’s vulnerability and exploitation of migrants by granting permanent residency to all. »
— A quote from Samira Jasmin, spokeswoman for Solidarity Across Borders
Several organizations and collectives were also present at the rally to oppose the new policy whereby migrants intercepted in Canada will be returned to the United States within 14 days of crossing the border and vice versa.
This measure would force these people to hide from Canadian authorities for two weeks in order to apply for refugee status without being deported and would be in direct violation of Canada’s obligation to grant asylum to persecuted people, Solidarity said Borders in a recent press release.
Representatives from various organizations addressed protesters Wednesday decrying the deal reached between Ottawa and Washington on Roxham Road.
Photo: Radio Canada
I would have hoped that in 2023 we would celebrate an inclusive regularization program, that we would talk about ending unjustified detention of migrants, ending inhumane and illegitimate deportations, and that we would talk about universal healthcare. underlined the spokeswoman for the collective Care for Social Justice, Rachel Heap-Lalonde.
A decision without notice
The protesters chanted slogans of solidarity with migrants and refugees and also condemned the deal announced without prior notice by the Canadian and American governments following Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa on March 23-24.
Although the Trudeau and Biden administrations reached an agreement more than a year ago, they chose to announce the new deal just hours before the shutdown. The Trudeau government has yet to release the new rules, creating an even more violent and dangerous context for people using Roxham Road, the same Solidarity Across Borders statement said.
According to a document made available on the US government website, the agreement was signed by Canada in March 2022 and by the United States in April of the same year.
The right to asylum is not a charity that we grant according to our good will, but an obligation. […] Justin Trudeau is turning away several thousand asylum seekers whose rights are protected by international treaties and conventions, said Amel Zaazaa, a consultant in charge of the undocumented and precarious status file at the Montreal Office for the Integration of Newcomers. BINAM) of the City of Montreal.
Protesters called on the Canadian government to grant permanent residency status to migrants.
Photo: Radio Canada
The activist also called for the immediate abolition of closed temporary permits and permanent regularization of all temporary workers so they can enjoy the same human rights as their Canadian counterparts.
The route, which was a key entry point for around 40,000 asylum-seekers in 2022, was closed following an agreement between Ottawa and Washington to modernize the Safe Third Countries Agreement.
This agreement, signed in 2004, allowed a person to seek asylum in Canada or the United States in the first of the two countries they set foot in, and only applied to border crossings and arrivals by train.
Its entry into force across the land border last Friday night now obliges authorities to turn back migrants crossing irregular points like Roxham Road.
Canada has pledged to take in 15,000 more asylum seekers to compensate for the new measures in place.