Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to close the unofficial border crossing at Roxham Road in Quebec within the next 30 days.
“If Canada is a country, then it has borders, and if the prime minister is the head of the government, he is responsible for protecting those borders,” Poilievre said
while speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Feb. 21.
“That is why Conservatives are calling for the prime minister to implement a plan to close the Roxham Road crossing within 30 days from now.”
Poilievre said the issue of thousands of migrants claiming asylum in Canada after crossing into the country through Roxham Road was caused by Trudeau, whom he said “encouraged people to cross illegally into Canada.”
Trudeau encouraged refugees to come to Canada in a
2017 Twitter post after then-U.S. president Donald Trump temporarily banned travel into the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries and for all Syrian refugees.
“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength,” Trudeau wrote, with a hashtag saying, “Welcome to Canada.”
The Twitter post has become the focal point of a
private criminal prosecution being levied against Trudeau by a Quebec-based activist group alleging that he violated the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by encouraging refugees to immigrate to Canada, which the group says has resulted in an influx of illegal immigrants.
Federal statistics show that in 2022, more than 39,000 migrants claimed asylum in Canada after being intercepted by the RCMP while crossing into Quebec, compared to just 369 across the rest of the country.
‘Sooner the Better’
Asked by reporters how the government would close the Roxham Road border crossing without violating international law, Poilievre said the federal government closed the unofficial entry point during the pandemic with much effect.
“Nobody ruled it unconstitutional,” he said. “Nobody found that it broke the law.”
The RCMP
intercepted nearly 35,000 people attempting to enter Canada from the U.S. at unofficial entry ports between January and November 2022, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
That number dropped to around 4,200 in 2021 while the Roxham Road crossing was closed because of the pandemic.
The Quebec government has been urging Ottawa to slow the inflow of asylum-seekers at Roxham road, with the province’s Premier François Legault
calling on Trudeau on Feb. 15 to issue an official statement dissuading migrants from coming to Canada.
“Roxham Road will have to be closed one day or another, whether we like it or not. The sooner the better,” he wrote.
Legault
also wrote a letter to Trudeau on Feb. 19 asking him to prioritize the Roxham Road situation during his upcoming meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in March.
The Canadian Press, Andrew Chen, and Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.
