Québec solidaire organizing rally against shredding immigrant applications
Will Quebec's decision to shred 18,000 immigration applications blow up in the government's face? Québec solidaire believes there is enough anger out there to spark a citizen movement against the shredding of 18,000 immigration files.
Philip Authier, Montreal Gazette
Updated: February 17, 2019
QUEBEC — The left wing Québec solidaire party is organizing a rally for people who have been negatively affected by the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s decision to shred 18,000 immigration application files.
With the CAQ’s controversial decision starting to make headlines internationally, QS believes it can spark a Quebec movement challenging the decision, which was included in the CAQ’s plan to reform the immigration system via Bill 9.
The party says the thousands of immigrant candidates — including many already living in Quebec — deserve to be treated better than to see their files tossed in the trash and then told to re-apply.
The government can’t just “sweep them under the rug,” said the QS point person on immigration, Andrés Fontecilla, in an interview Sunday with the Montreal Gazette.
“We need to display a minimum of respect for these people,” Fontecilla, the MNA for Laurier-Dorion, said. “Someone needs to get the message: you do have to deal with these files and these people.”
QS’s first step is to hold a rally Feb. 24 at Cégep Ahuntsic starting at 11 a.m. It is inviting immigrant workers affected by the decision to come and tell their stories. Experts are also being invited. The public can attend as well.
About 200 people are expected and the party is counting on social media and word-of-mouth to turn the event into a movement, said Fontecilla.
Like other MNAs, Fontecilla said his office has been flooded with calls and e-mails from potential candidates who were told by the government in an email that the rules are being changed in mid-steam.
Many are angry, others in a panic, Fontecilla said.
“We want to give these people a voice,” he said. “And we’d like the plan to be contested by a movement.
“These people deserve answers. “Their applications need to be processed.”
Caught off-guard by the reaction to Bill 9, Immigration, Diversity and Inclusivenes Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette has been promoting a new on-line system known as Arrima which matches potential immigrants with employers as an option.
But it means re-starting the process for people who have already been waiting.
Quebec’s association of immigration lawyers said Thursday the system is far from operational. Of the 91,000 people signed up, none have received an invitation to apply for entry to the Regular Skilled Worker Program.
The government argues the old system, which was based on a first come, first served basis, involves delays as long as three years or more.
But embarrassing new facts are constantly emerging. On Saturday various media reported that despite the government’s insistence it is unfair to leave applicants in limbo so long, in reality less than one third are more than three years old.
There are fewer than 100 that were filed between 2005 and 2010.
Over the last few days, lawyers working in the immigration law field, citizens and politicians have called on the government to reverse its decision and process the files.
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