OTTAWA — Closing an unofficial border crossing in southern Quebec will not slow the arrival of asylum seekers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.
“If we close Roxham Road, people will cross elsewhere,” he told reporters in Ottawa. “We have an enormous border, and we’re not going to start arming or putting fences on it.”
On Wednesday, Quebec Premier François Legault called for Trudeau to close the makeshift crossing south of Montreal, saying that the province doesn’t have the capacity to care for migrants as they wait for their refugee claims to be processed.
Trudeau said intercepting irregular migrants at Roxham Road, where an RCMP post has been set up, allows Canadian authorities to conduct security verifications and to ensure that migrants are not “lost and illegal inside Canada.”
Negotiations are ongoing with the United States, Trudeau said, to change the Safe Third Country Agreement, which has led to the irregular crossings.
Under that agreement, which has been in place since 2004, asylum seekers who enter the U.S. must claim refugee status there and can be turned back if they attempt to enter Canada through an official border crossing to make a refugee claim. However, asylum seekers who cross the border irregularly can make a refugee claim once they are in Canada.
Discussions with the U.S. to change the agreement are “advancing well,” Trudeau said, but he added that the subject is delicate for the Americans, because they are worried about the impact any changes could have on the country’s border with Mexico.
The RCMP have intercepted 7,013 asylum seekers who have crossed irregularly into Quebec from the United States since the beginning of the year, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. In 2019, more than 16,000 asylum seekers were intercepted by the RCMP after crossing irregularly into Quebec.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2022.
JASPER, ALTA. – The Alberta government has announced 250 units of interim housing for Jasper, Alta., residents displaced by a wildfire this summer.
Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon says the housing will cost the province $112 million, and the units will be rented at or near market rates.
The July wildfire destroyed one-third of the tourist town’s structures, including more than 800 units of housing.
Nixon says it’s still being determined how many of the interim housing units will be single occupancy and how many will be designed for families.
Mayor Richard Ireland says the need for housing was already an issue before the fire, but these units will help Jasper residents recover from the disaster.
Nixon says units are expected to be available in January.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – A federal public inquiry into foreign interference is grappling with how to define its central issue as it begins the final week of hearings in Ottawa.
The inquiry will hear from expert panels this week on disinformation, national security and how to ensure electoral integrity.
This morning, experts talked about the challenge in differentiating between legitimate diplomatic efforts and more nefarious interference attempts.
This panel also includes the challenge of how to regulate efforts to interfere in elections without infringing on the rights to free expression.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue is tasked with examining efforts of foreign states like China, India and Russia to interfere in the last two federal elections and in Canada’s democracy.
A final report, which will make recommendations on how to ensure electoral integrity and strengthen democratic institutions, is due by the end of the year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024
SHERBROOKE, Que. – National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau will run for mayor of Sherbrooke, Que., in the municipal elections slated for next fall.
The Liberal MP for the Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead confirmed Monday morning that she will complete her current term in Ottawa, but will not seek re-election.
Bibeau, who has been national revenue minister since July 2023, was first elected in 2015 and has since spent time as minister of agriculture, international development and la Francophonie.
Bibeau said her campaign has not officially begun and she will continue to focus on her work as an MP, but she plans to run as an independent candidate to replace outgoing Mayor Évelyne Beaudin, who has already confirmed she will not seek re-election.
Quebec’s municipal elections are scheduled for Nov. 2, 2025, while the next federal election must take place no later than Oct. 20, though the minority Liberal government could fall before then.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to shuffle his cabinet soon to replace Bibeau and three other ministers who have informed him they don’t plan to run in the next election.
Bibeau’s spouse, Bernard Sévigny, was mayor of Sherbrooke from 2009 to 2017.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
