Québec solidaire immigration critic Andrés Fontecilla told about 200 people Sunday at a rally that Quebecers must convince Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to process 18,000 backlogged immigration files it announced it would scrap as part of Bill 9, sweeping legislation it tabled this month to reform the immigration system.
The controversial Coalition Avenir Québec plan, which requires applicants to reapply for a Quebec selection certificate — an important step on the road to permanent residency in Canada — using new criteria, will affect about 50,000 people, 5,000 of whom are already here and working. The $19 million submitted in fees to process requests would be refunded.
“What we are saying is, instead of giving back the money, use it to process the applications.” said Ruba Ghazal, Québec solidaire MNA for Mercier, in an interview after the rally, held at Collège Ahuntsic.
Fontecilla said hundreds of testimonies from people concerned and fearful for their futures have been received “since the cleaver fell.”
“Minister Jolin-Barrette is treating the tens of thousands of people affected by Bill 9 as numbers, but behind the 18,000 files, there are people, stories, life plans and projects destroyed,” he said.
“These people fulfilled their end of the deal … many of them are already here; their children attend our schools. Now it is up to the minister to meet the province’s commitments instead sending them to the shredder.”
Ghazal said the decision of Premier François Legault’s party is giving Quebec a bad reputation internationally and “shows a lack of respect. Filling out all these papers is not that simple. A lot pay to have someone help them. These people followed all the rules. And if there were a lot of delays, if the previous government did not have enough resources, that is not their fault.”
As an immigrant herself — Ghazal is Palestinian, was born in Lebanon and came to Quebec as a child with her parents and other relatives have come here since — she said she is certain that among those affected by the government’s decision, people who put all kinds of time, money and effort into the process, there are “who are not sleeping at night.”
“We understand the instability,” she said. “I understand the fear.”
The Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en droit de l’immigration filed a request last week for an injunction to halt the Legault government plan. The association, representing 250 Quebec immigration lawyers, contends that Jolin-Barrette does not have the power to stop the processing of requests before new legislation is adopted.
