More than half of Quebecers want migrants stopped at border: survey

More than half of Quebecers are in favour of preventing migrants from entering the country and want them stopped at the Canada-U.S. border.

That opinion is shared by 51 per cent of Quebecers last week in a SOM-Cogeco Nouvelles survey. According to the survey, younger respondents, academics and people in the Montreal region do not support such a measure. In all, 37 per cent of respondents do not believe migrants should be prevented from entering Canada directly at the border. Fifty-six per cent of respondents found it unacceptable that people bypassing normal immigration procedures be treated as a priority. People in the Quebec City area and those who speak French as their mother tongue are more likely to be in this group.

“At the time of the poll, we had very upbeat speeches from our leaders: Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau, Premier (Philippe) Couillard, the mayor of Montreal, (Denis) Coderre. So we felt like it was ‘come on, come in, it’s the open bar, you’re accepted,’ ” Eric Lacroix, cochair of SOM, said.

The tone of the political leaders has since changed, he believes, to the point where the results might be different if the survey were done today. Thirty-nine per cent of the people surveyed believe a large influx of migrants will make Quebec less safe. The proportion reaches 52 per cent among those with less education. And it appears the decision by Coderre to have Montreal designated as a sanctuary city for undocumented migrants has not gone over well. A total of 63 per cent of respondents “rather” or “quite” disagree with this decision, while 31 per cent are “rather” or “quite” in agreement.

This online survey was conducted Aug. 9-10 with 1,037 Quebecers age 18 years and over. The margin of error for all respondents is 3.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.