'NOT ACCEPTABLE': Carney decries surge of asylum-seekers coming to Quebec via U.S.
Bloc Quebecois says province 'should not carry more than its fair share of the people we’re welcoming' from abroad
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Mark Carney says a new influx of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec from the U.S., amid a crackdown on migrants by President Donald Trump, is “not acceptable.”
“Canada and the United States must work in closer collaboration in order to manage this situation,” the Liberal leader said at a campaign stop in Delta, B.C., on Tuesday.
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“It’s not acceptable for the United States to send us all their asylum seekers.”
Radio-Canada reported a sharp increase in asylum seekers at the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing, with 1,356 cases in March, up from 560 in January. Many of the refugee claimants are believed to be from Haiti, which is experiencing a rise in gang violence.
Carney acknowledged the sharp increase in refugee claimants.
He noted that under the Safe Third-Country Agreement, Canada can send asylum seekers back to the U.S.
“In my view, that’s appropriate and remains appropriate,” he said.
A reporter asked about the contrast with his predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who at the beginning of Trump‘s first term in 2017 said Canada would welcome people “fleeing persecution, terror and war.”
“The situation in the United States has changed — has changed significantly — because there is now the possibility of a wave of asylum claims,” Carney responded.
Other federal party leaders also weighed in.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said the federal government must speed up the processing of asylum seekers and distribute arrivals more evenly across the country.
“We need to act. We need to move much more quickly,” Blanchet told a press conference in Ottawa.
Blanchet said new arrivals from Haiti are “somewhat different” from that of other countries because they are French-speaking.
“But that does not relieve us of the obligation to have a system that follows the rules and has the resources needed to properly manage asylum seekers.”
He said Canada must also ensure that asylum seekers are fairly distributed across the provinces in proportion to their populations “so that Quebec does not bear a disproportionate share.”
Quebec “doesn’t have the capacity,” Blanchet said. “It should not carry more than its fair share of the people we’re welcoming.”
At a campaign event in Edmonton, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was asked if Canada should welcome Haitian asylum seekers or send them back to the U.S.
“I’m in favour of legal immigration,” he answered. “When people arrive here in Canada, if they are asylum seekers, they have to show that they are real asylum seekers.”
He added: “If someone is a true refugee who (is) truly in danger abroad and they come in under the proper rules, then they should be allowed to stay. But if they’re a fraudster, they will have to go.”
Poilievre accused former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau of leaving behind a “broken immigration system” that enabled “a massive fraud” involving international students, foreign workers and false refugee claimants to persist for years.
He said the situation strained the job and housing markets, as well as the health-care system.
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