Reinstate the Moratorium on
Deportations!
Refugee Claimant Advocates Decry Federal Government Decision to Resume Deportations
- Diane Johnston -
November 21, 2020. Picket in Montreal for
permanent resident status for all.
Advocates for failed refugee claimants and
other non-status workers are condemning the
Trudeau Liberal government's decision to resume
the deportation of asylum seekers whose claims
have been rejected, many of whom have been
working in health care as well as other
essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
informed immigration lawyers by email that the
agency would resume deportations, on which there
had been a moratorium since March 17, as of
November 30.
 A very restricted
pan-Canadian special program, announced on
August 14 by the federal and Quebec governments,
which was to "provide a pathway to permanent
residency for asylum claimants," has yet to see
the light of day. The program only applies to
nursing attendants and orderlies providing
direct care to those infected with COVID-19, as
long as they meet all the program's
requirements. Even though the program was set up
by the federal and Legault governments in
response to broad public appreciation of these
workers, it is the Legault government that will
have the final word on who in Quebec gets
accepted into the permanent residency program.
In a recent email to the media, a Quebec
immigration department spokesperson stated that
the program is expected to come into effect over
the winter and that the details of how it will
apply in Quebec will be announced "shortly."
Frantz André from the Action Committee on
Non-Status Persons (CAPSS) says that the
decision has only exacerbated the vulnerability
of essential workers dubbed "guardian angels" by
Quebec Premier François Legault. "So, we're
starting [deportations] three weeks before
Christmas, when the program and the details of
the special program for asylum seeker orderlies
have yet to be announced," he said, adding, "I
call this criminal. This is not right!"
André also noted that the announcement of the
resumption of removals has left many feeling
fearful and unsure about whether they qualify
for the special program. He went on to say that
some of these workers who could have been
eligible have given up and decided to leave
Quebec and that others have contemplated
suicide.
He says the deportation orders should be
suspended until it becomes clear who is eligible
for the program. In his opinion, all asylum
seekers who have been in the country since the
pandemic began deserve to stay. "I think they
all have contributed, economically, to saving
lives, and Canada is better thanks to these
people," he said, adding that their contribution
has shown that far from being a burden to
Canada, they are a gift.
Wilner Cayo, President of Debout pour la
dignité (Stand Up for Dignity) continued in the
same vein, noting that the uncertainty is
causing those who continue to work to ensure
their survival "enormous anxiety."
Cayo also remarked that the forever elusive
program fails to address the situation facing
other essential workers, including security
guards and cleaning staff in care homes, truck
drivers working in food production, etc.
The head of the Quebec Association of
Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI), Guillaume
Cliche-Rivard, declared that the Canada Border
Agency's announcement was "very bad news" and
will only add to the anxieties of refugee
claimants. "This means that people who were
waiting and hoping for the regularization of
their status, some through the program aimed at
guardian angels, could be removed beforehand,"
he said. "These people play an important role in
all sectors of our society. This includes such
people as security agents who keep watch over
our health care establishments or those who
clean our CHSLDs [long-term care centres] who
are not included in any [regularization]
program, but who we cannot afford to lose."
 In his opinion,
just weeks before the holidays and right in the
middle of this second wave of the pandemic, the
time chosen to resume expulsions could not have
been worse. "We are smack in the middle of an
upsurge, with 1,400 cases per day. To suggest
that we are in a position to let some of these
people go seems completely absurd to me," he
stressed. "The same government which is telling
us not to go out and to avoid air travel is also
telling us that it will be deporting people to
their countries."
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard also remarked that the
CBSA, under the responsibility of Public Safety
Canada, has no specific information on a person
being deported, such as what their job is. "The
agency doesn't know what work these people do.
Even if these procedures were suspended for
certain people working in essential services,
legally nothing prevents the expulsion of an
orderly."
He called on the CBSA to immediately reinstate
its moratorium on deportations.
"Given the pandemic, we're putting these
people's health at risk by throwing them out,"
said Quebec immigration lawyer Stéphane
Handfield. "This is a world pandemic. Why is the
CBSA doing this now? It doesn't make sense."
For Marjorie Villefranche, Director General of
la Maison d'Haïti and Co-Spokesperson of the
Coalition for the Regularization of Status, the
announcement comes as no surprise. "They choose
a time when people will not be paying too much
attention," she said. "That's what they usually
do. It's just before Christmas and people are
busy with other things," she added. "What this
means is that people who are refugee claimants,
the very people who could have had their status
regularized, are at risk of being deported."
Villefranche is also concerned that persons who
provided direct care to patients may be deported
before the regularization program sees the light
of day, along with some 5,000 rejected refugee
claimants already in the country who could have
been included in the special program if it had
been expanded to cover all essential service
workers.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 11 - December 9, 2020
Volume [volume] Number [issue] - [date]
Article Link:
Reinstate the Moratorium on
Deportations!: Refugee Claimant Advocates Decry Federal Government Decision to Resume Deportations - Diane Johnston
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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