More than a hundred people demonstrated in Montreal on Sunday afternoon to demand the establishment of an “inclusive” regularization program for undocumented immigrants in the country.
Posted 1:53pm Updated 4:35pm
Vincent Larin The Press
PHOTO FROM TWITTER ACCOUNT @SOLIDARITEMTL
The rally took place on Sunday in the Place de la Paix, opposite the Monument-National
Last month, Federal Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser announced that he was working to introduce a massive regularization program for undocumented migrant workers.
On Sunday, many insisted on the importance of making this program “inclusive” and that it avoids certain pitfalls encountered by previous versions, including Quebec’s “Guardian Angels” regularization program.
This, intended to offer permanent status to undocumented workers working in CHSLDs during the COVID-19 pandemic, excluded certain employment groups, New Democratic Party MP Alexandre Boulerice recalled in an interview on the sidelines of the demonstration.
“We really had to provide services to people. People who worked in the kitchen, security guards, those who did the cleaning weren’t locked in,” he explained.
More openness required
Canada has become “like addicted” to programs for temporary migrant workers, for example in agriculture, notes Alexandre Boulerice. “However, if these people are good enough to work, to make our industries work, they must have a path to permanent residence,” he says.
For his part, the President of the Confederation of Democratic Unions (CSD), Luc Vachon, called for a program to be set up “quicker and with more openness”. “That we already recognize that those who have been here a long time, it would be time to consider them full residents of Canada,” he said.
Mamadou Konaté, present at the demonstration as spokesman for the Center for Immigrant Workers, experienced the limitations of this program himself, despite having worked as a red-zone housekeeper in three CHSLDs, including the one where he contracted COVID-19 had infected.
Recall that in September 2020, Mr. Konaté voluntarily went to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to legalize his status. As a result, his application for asylum was rejected and he was arrested on the spot.
“If you have no status, all your rights will be violated. You work, you do all the tasks like everyone else, but you don’t benefit from any public service,” he summed up.
Queries in Quebec
The thirty or so community organizations represented at Sunday’s demonstration addressed their demands to Ottawa but also to Quebec, particularly to the new Minister of Immigration, Franciscans and Integration, Christine Fréchette, as it is a shared responsibility.
The number of people with irregular status remains unclear in the country as it is by definition a hidden population. However, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration estimates their number at “between 20,000 and 500,000 people”.
In Quebec, that number could be as high as 100,000, although that’s an estimate based solely on the observations of immigration lawyers, says the outgoing president of her association, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.
Note that other similar gatherings were also taking place in other Quebec cities at the same time, including the Capitale-Nationale and Saguenay.