Between when the Trudeau government signed the agreement to amend the Safe Third Country agreement, and when it came into force, more than 41,000 people crossed illegally into Canada at Roxham Rd.
After we add in the numbers for March, expect the final tally to be over 45,000 or the equivalent of adding the population of Chatham, Ont., via what the government calls “irregular migration.”
Asylum seekers warned by police they could be sent back continued to walk into Canada through the unofficial United States border crossing into Quebec at Roxham Road a day after the two countries amended a 20-year-old asylum pact trying to stem the influx.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement on Friday after a record number of asylum seekers arrived in Canada via unofficial border crossings, putting pressure on Trudeau to address it.
NIAGARA FALLS — They may be immigration pioneers and among the last of the Roxham Rd. border crossers at the same time.
But one thing they don’t seem to have are any regrets.
Quebec immigration experts say closing Roxham Road to asylum seekers may go against Canada’s international obligations and could result in more deaths at the border, after an already deadly year.
Two men died attempting to cross the Canadian border within two months of each other.
The first, 43-year-old Fritznel Richard, was trying to reach his family in Florida in time for the holidays. His body was found in early January. The second, Jose Leos Cervantes, 45, was also heading into the United States on Feb. 19, and collapsed just as U.S. border patrollers approached him and the two people he was with, shortly after they had made it into Vermont.
Death by misadventure is no reason to make Canada a doormat.
Ottawa has negotiated a border deal with the United States that would allow Canada to turn back migrants coming from the U.S. who are looking to make asylum claims at unofficial points of entry such as Roxham Road.
The deal would apply the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) across the entire Canada-United States border. It would close a loophole which allowed migrants arriving in Canada from the United States between official ports of entry to make asylum claims. Canadian authorities patrolling the border are now able to turn asylum seekers back to the United States.
I don’t believe them.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to finalize a landmark deal with President Joe Biden in Ottawa on Friday, which would close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement and see Canada accept thousands more Central American migrants through legal pathways.
Government sources cautioned that while the two countries are on track to finalize the deal during Mr. Biden’s trip to Ottawa, the fine print is still being hammered out and confirmation will only come on Friday. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.
… The increase was in part fuelled by government efforts to recruit migrants to the country to ease labour shortages, Statistics Canada said.
The country also depends on migration to support an ageing population.
But Statistics Canada said the surge in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants could “also represent additional challenges for some regions of the country related to housing, infrastructure and transportation, and service delivery to the population”.
The last sentence is true, everything else is just a lie to cover for the greed of the corporate class.
Radio-Canada has learned that the Trudeau government has reached a deal with the United States on irregular migration which will allow Ottawa to close the Roxham Road irregular crossing at the Canada-U.S. border.
Sources told Radio-Canada that Ottawa has agreed to welcome a certain number of migrants through official channels. The precise details of the deal are still not known.
I bet they just bus them to another entry point.
A five-mile stretch of dirt road linking New York state to the Canadian province of Quebec is expected to be a focal point of Joe Biden’s first official visit to Canada later this week, as Justin Trudeau seeks to slow a surge in asylum claims amid criticism that his government is failing refugees.
Last year nearly 40,000 people entered Canada at Roxham Road, an informal crossing in the forests of upstate New York that has become a political flashpoint in recent years.
Canada’s population increased by more than a million people for the first time in history in 2022, almost entirely due to a surge in immigrants and temporary residents, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.
Total population grew by a record 1.05 million people to 39.57 million in the 12 months to Jan. 1, 2023, and about 96 per cent of the rise was due to international migration, the statistics agency said.
The increase, which helped Canada retain its position as the fastest-growing G7 country, translates to a population growth rate of 2.7 per cent and such a rate would lead to the population doubling in about 26 years, the agency said.
Plus … Trudeau, Poilievre Spar Over Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre sparred over the ongoing housing affordability crisis across Canada during question period on March 22, with the leader of the official opposition calling on Trudeau to find ways of bringing down rising mortgage costs.
Poilievre said Trudeau promised to bring down housing costs when he first took office eight years ago, but has so far failed to do so.
“It cost $1,400 to pay an average mortgage [in 2015],” said Poilievre. “How much does it cost today?”
Poilievre later pointed out that Canada’s average mortgage price has risen to over $3,100 since then.
Human-rights lawyers need to stop making excuses for the English Channel traffickers.
Last week, the UK government’s Illegal Migration Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons, by 312 votes to 250. The controversial bill would allow for the detention of any migrant entering the UK through illegal means, such as on a small boat over the English Channel. Under the bill, migrants arriving illegally in Britain would also be denied access to asylum and to lawyers, and would be automatically deported to the nearest safe country.
The @NDP suffer from Terminal Virtue-Signalling.
TVS is a cognitive deficit which makes it impossible to use common sense, respect existing norms & causes an addictive urge to achieve change @ any cost, making a TVS'er inescapable of fiscal responsibility. https://t.co/nUYXjfWdBH
— Kaffir Kanuck (@Kaffir_Kanuck) March 21, 2023
Last year, nearly 40,000 migrants crossed into Canada at an unofficial border at the end of a remote rural road in upstate New York – a record number – to seek asylum. Many are driven by the belief that the country is more welcoming than the US. But can Canada handle the influx?
On a snowy winter day, Roxham Road is cold and quiet. The silence is interrupted by the sound of wheels approaching the end of the path, or the crunching of footsteps on snow.
Around 150 migrants are dropped off here each day, determined to step foot into Canada. Many began their journey as far away as Brazil, with this road in New York state as their finish line.
… Some pinned its sudden popularity to fears of deportation from the US under the Trump administration, others to a tweet by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that read: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you”.
Border Patrol agents along the Mexican and Canadian borders apprehended 70 migrants who crossed between ports of entry so far this fiscal year. This compares to the record-shattering apprehensions last year of 98 migrants on the FBI’s list for the entire FY22. The five-month total also exceeds all four years of the Trump administration combined.
A year after hearing “welcome home” for the first time at the Canadian border, Shahzad Gidwani found himself questioning whether he and his wife made the right decision to start a new life here.
The timing wasn’t ideal, arriving in Toronto from India with their son just as the pandemic began sweeping the globe. Yet the 53-year-old held high hopes for his family’s future. He was bringing with him decades of international work experience in sales and marketing, and a master’s degree in business from the U.S.
You mean inflation from the soaring prices of the housing shortage they’re helping create?
Why are they here? I don’t think Canada has a massive shortage of “sales and marketing” people with or without dime a dozen “masters degrees” either.
