Embarrassing response to migrant ‘angels’

In the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, it was said approvingly of Premier François Legault that he was acting as a “bon père de famille” — Quebec’s dad.

There are limits to his benevolent paternalism, however. Those migrants working in our coronavirus-infected long-term-care facilities, they’re not his kids.

Recently, Legault had a message for asylum seekers who might have thought they had earned the right to stay here by risking their lives among what he calls “our guardian angels” caring for our ailing seniors.

“Thanks for your service,” he said, in essence. “Now, get back in line.”

An independent member of the National Assembly, Catherine Fournier, had presented a motion to recognize the contribution of refugee claimants working in the CHSLDS, most of them Haitians, and have the government ask Ottawa to regularize their immigration status.

Fournier’s motion had the support of the three opposition parties. Since it was a “motion without notice,” however, it required unanimous consent to be considered, which the government refused.

The premier was given an opportunity to explain why, two days later at a news conference in Montreal, when questioned by Jean Numa Goudou, a journalist for a Haitian-community online newspaper, In Texto.

Legault brought up Roxham Road, the crossing point on the border between Quebec and New York used by thousands of asylum seekers in 2017 and 2018, an issue his Coalition Avenir Québec party successfully exploited.

He implied that regularizing the immigration status of those working in the CHSLDS would encourage more to come, even though Roxham Road is currently closed.

As if the Haitian dream is to be exploited by a recruiting agency for a temporary job changing adult diapers in a coronavirus hothouse that many native-born Quebecers wouldn’t do by choice even before it became dangerous.

Legault conceded that “among the asylum seekers, including members of the Haitian community,” there may have been “good people who came to work in our CHSLDS.” One of his best friends is Haitian; junior health minister Lionel Carmant “has been a friend of mine for a long time.”

The premier said Fournier’s motion “asked for support for the arrival of asylum seekers.” False; it referred only to the several hundred already here and working in the CHSLDS.

The next week, in another news conference, Legault said: “We can’t open the door and say, ‘if you come illegally, if you find a job, it’s OK, we’ll accept you as an immigrant.’ That’s not how it works.”

Again, that’s not what people had been asking for. What they wanted was exceptional treatment in an exceptional case, which would not set a general precedent for other refugee claimants.

This week, Legault appeared to soften his hard line, somewhat.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this was the day after the popular Radio-canada television talk show Tout le monde en parle.

The show included an extended interview with Fabrice Vil, a lawyer and social entrepreneur of Haitian descent who has been leading a social-media campaign (#Jemesouviendrai) for appreciation of the contribution of minorities in the COVID crisis.

To TLMEP’S audience of more than 1 million, Vil said the asylum seekers working in the already understaffed CHSLDS are facing deportation if their applications are rejected.

Legault is susceptible to changing his mind abruptly in response to media coverage. There is less to this apparent concession than it appears, however.

He committed his government only to determine whether any of the CHSLD asylum seekers would qualify as regular immigrants instead. Some, perhaps most, might not.

And Legault left that decision to Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-barrette, who interprets his mandate to restrict admission to Quebec with cold-hearted zeal.

Now that Legault has handed them off, with summer approaching, he may hope the CHSLD asylum seekers will be forgotten. Quebecers embarrassed by our premier’s meanness toward them, and the opposition parties who supported Fournier’s motion, can’t allow that to happen. dmacpgaz@gmail.com Twitter.com/dmacpgaz