A small road straddling the Canada-U.S. border has become a political hot potato again in recent weeks as politicians call on Ottawa to close it to migrants claiming asylum.
Quebec Premier François Legault recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to close Roxham Road to asylum-seekers. Thousands of them have crossed into Canada from the United States at Roxham in recent years.
Legault claimed that the influx of people waiting to have their claims heard has put heavy pressure on the province’s public services. In a similar letter published Tuesday in the Globe and Mail, Legault asked other provinces to help.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also has called on Trudeau to close Roxham Road. Trudeau himself said Wednesday the government is working on shutting down the irregular border crossing. But it’s not at all clear how Ottawa could do that.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is Roxham Road?
Roxham Road is bisected by the Canada-U.S. Border between Quebec and New York. It sits about 50 km south of Montreal.
The road is a well-travelled unofficial border crossing for asylum seekers hoping to enter Canada.
A boundary monument marks the border between Canada and the United States at Roxham Road. The road is a well-travelled unofficial border crossing for asylum seekers crossing into Canada. (Charles Contant/CBC)
Roxham used to be a dirt road with a ditch marking the border near the municipality of Hemmingford, Que. It has since been paved on the Canadian side.
Despite its status as an unofficial crossing, Roxham Road has a semi-permanent RCMP post set up by the federal government where police officers can begin processing asylum claims.
Why are people crossing at Roxham Road?
Since 2017, Canada has seen an influx of refugee claimants crossing the U.S. border at various unofficial entry points.
Asylum seekers are barred from entering Canada at official border points under the Safe Third Country Agreement. The agreement states that asylum seekers who enter the U.S. or Canada must make their claims in the first country they arrive in, because the two countries share similar approaches to immigration.
But the treaty has a loophole big enough to walk through: it doesn’t cover unofficial points of entry like Roxham Road. The Roxham crossing sits between two official border crossings, one of which is roughly 5 km away.
It is against the law for an asylum claimant to cross the border anywhere other than at an official port of entry. But once someone is in Canada, they’re legally allowed to apply for asylum, which is a step toward refugee status.
According to federal government statistics, more than 39,000 people claimed asylum in Quebec in 2022 after crossing into Canada outside official ports of entry. Only about 369 people claimed asylum after crossing at a non-official point of entry elsewhere in the country.
Poilievre did not say how Roxham could be shut down. He noted that Roxham Road crossings largely stopped at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement to turn back asylum-seekers attempting to cross the border outside of official points in 2020. But that agreement was part of a larger suite of pandemic border measures. The ban was lifted as overall border measures began to ease.
WATCH | Ottawa under pressure to close Roxham Road border crossing
Renegotiating Safe Third Country Agreement won’t stop irregular migration: ambassador
3 days ago
Duration 3:53
“Whatever you do to the Safe Third Country Agreement is … going to do very little about irregular migration,” said U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen. “If you’re serious about trying to deal with irregular migration, you have to deal with the underlying causes.”
On Wednesday, Trudeau dismissed any suggestion that the crossing could be closed by anything but a renegotiated Safe Third Country Agreement.
But U.S. Ambassador David Cohen pushed back on Trudeau’s claim in a recent interview with CBC News Network’s Power & Politics. Cohen said renegotiating the deal would do “very little” to address irregular migration and that the two countries should instead focus on addressing the “underlying causes of irregular migration.”
Following Cohen’s comments, Trudeau said he plans to bring up the Safe Third Country Agreement when U.S. President Joe Biden visits Canada next month.
Ottawa faces pressure to close Roxham Road border crossing
3 days ago
Duration 2:05
The federal government is facing significant pressure to close the Roxham Road irregular border crossing in Quebec that’s being used by an increasing number of migrants to get into Canada from the United States.
In the past, some Conservatives have called on the government to designate the entire border as an official crossing to address the situation at Roxham. But doing so would still require negotiations with the U.S.
While thousands of asylum seekers have crossed at Roxham Road, others have made perilous journeys elsewhere along the border through deep snow and freezing temperatures, putting their lives at risk.
Physically erecting a barrier at Roxham could drive asylum-seekers to other unofficial crossings that could be much less safe.
During that same campaign, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party would suspend the agreement with the U.S. so that migrants would not need to cross outside of official border points.
But concerns are starting to trickle down to the local level as well.
Part of Legault’s recent campaign to stem the flow of asylum–seekers crossing at Roxham Road is a push to have claimants transferred to other provinces.
Legault has said refugee claimants are pushing the province’s social services to their limits.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it began transferring migrants arriving in Quebec to cities like Ottawa and Niagara Falls, Ont. in July as Quebec’s shelter system — and hotels rented by IRCC — reached capacity.
One community group in Ontario’s Niagara region said it already was dealing with requests for assistance from asylum seekers that had tripled in number before the government began transferring more claimants earlier this month.
Earlier this week, Atlantic premiers said they’d be willing to host asylum seekers arriving in Quebec but would need federal support to do so. Trudeau said Thursday that his government would offer such assistance.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
