FUREY: The numbers are in — Canada's border crossers keep on coming
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It’s been a funny phenomenon, the conversation around Canada’s illegal border crossings. It was a big deal back last year when the problem was first reported upon, albeit a little late and more than a little begrudgingly, by my venerable colleagues in the press.
Since then, it dies down and flares up every couple of months. Like in April, when Conservative MP Michelle Rempel proposed making the entire border an official point of entry. Or in July, when federal Liberal minister Ahmed Hussen inferred Ontario PC cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod was “unCanadian” for her questions on the file.
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Now, it only makes sense to bring up the issue again when there’s something new to report, say a new development or policy revision and so on. But these lull periods in the news might give people the impression that these are also lull periods when it comes to the actual numbers. And that when we are not talking about all of these people crossing illegally into the country every month that’s because they aren’t doing it or at least not a much. That is not the case. Far from it.
On Thursday, the government released the September numbers and they tell an interesting story. They haven’t really gone up all that much, depending on what month you compare them to. But they haven’t really gone down either. They’re just there. Constant.
And that’s the thing. Canada’s illegal border phenomenon hasn’t gone way. It’s staying put. It’s the new normal.
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Last month, a total of 1,601 people crossed “irregularly” into Canada and made an asylum claim. That’s far fewer people than the record high of last August, which was 5,712. But it’s higher than several months out of this year, including June’s tally of 1,263 people.
If you average out all of the reported monthly numbers since the problem began at the beginning of 2017, you get 1,729 as the monthly average number. So right now we’re just slightly below average, with around 50 people a day making the journey.
That is not the 200 or more that some experts worried would become the new normal. But it’s still a major departure from where we were at before this all began. In 2016, there were 2,464 people apprehended. That’s not just for one month. That’s the whole year.
Back in August, Louis Dumas, a senior public servant with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, told the city council of Cornwall — which is Ontario’s unofficial welcome wagon to the Roxham Rd. crossers who decide they won’t stay put in Quebec — that we’re now witnessing migration patterns similar to what’s happening in Europe.
“Canada is no longer protected from this reality,” he said.
Looks like he was right.
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