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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 141

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 5, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe (Lac-Saint-Jean, BQ)
  • Dec/5/22 2:39:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in 2017, when the Prime Minister took to Twitter to invite all those fleeing persecution to come to Canada, he surely did not imagine that everyone would come through Roxham Road, but that is exactly what happened. In October alone, 3,901 asylum seekers took that route, out of a total of over 30,000 this year. Meanwhile, do we know how many asylum seekers have used regular border crossings in Quebec? A total of 638 people out of 30,000. Will the minister suspend the safe third country agreement so that asylum seekers can go back to using the border crossings?
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Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe (Lac-Saint-Jean, BQ)
  • Dec/5/22 2:40:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the RCMP were also caught off guard by the Prime Minister's tweet. The RCMP was not expecting 90% of its border agents to be tied up handling Roxham Road. There are 117 land crossings with border services officers where asylum seekers could go instead of Roxham Road, if the minister were to suspend the safe third country agreement. That would allow the RCMP to do their job, their real job. When will the minister suspend that agreement so the RCMP can focus on gun smuggling instead of Roxham Road?
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Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe (Lac-Saint-Jean, BQ)
  • Dec/5/22 2:41:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about dignity. Thanks to Roxham Road, 62% of all of Canada's asylum claims are made in Quebec. As a result, our schools are running out of room, immigration lawyers are at their wits' end and our community organizations are stretched to the limit. We have to suspend the safe third country agreement so that asylum seekers can be given a dignified welcome by Canadians across Canada. Why is it up to organizations in Montreal to do all the work instead of organizations in Vancouver, Winnipeg or Halifax?
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Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus (Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, CPC)
  • Dec/5/22 3:07:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe I am well aware of it, just as I am well aware that the United States is a safe country. People in the U.S. who want to seek asylum should seek it in the U.S. When people cross the border from the U.S. to Canada, they are violating the safe third country agreement. There is a loophole in the safe third country agreement, and we are waiting for the government to close it. It will have been six years in January. Can the government fix the safe third country agreement so we stop getting applications from refugees arriving by land from the United States?
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Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Dec/5/22 3:07:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have domestic and international legal obligations that require us to consider in good faith claims of asylum that have been made for those who enter the country in search of safe haven. In his previous question, he indicated that people are somehow displacing other more deserving refugees. I would point out for my hon. colleague that Canada, over the past three years, has resettled more refugees than any other country in the world. In each of the last two years, Canada has resettled more than one-third of the total number of refugees that have settled anywhere globally. We will continue to be the world leader when it comes to doing the right thing to support the world's vulnerable, not just who cross our border from the United States but around the world altogether.
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