Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your invitation.

The Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association, the QILA, was founded over 30 years ago and has more than 460 member lawyers who work in the specific field of immigration and refugee protection.

The QILA submits that the only solution for protecting the health, safety and security of refugee claimants is to abolish the safe third country agreement. Without that agreement, there would be a better distribution of the number of refugee claimants in Canada. As well, it would offer them better access to the social and legal services they need, all without resulting in any increase in refugee claims.

However, because of that agreement, a majority of refugee claimants enter in Quebec and make a claim at the time of entry, and this has significant repercussions for people who have already suffered too much. Refugee claimants are arriving in Quebec, but the system is already overloaded. We have to keep in mind that these human beings who arrive at our border do so in the hope of obtaining Canada's protection, since their lives are in danger. Their quest can be successful only if we offer them the tools they need for making their claims in the proper way, and obviously that calls for access to justice.

Some people are not able to find a lawyer, and that interferes with making their claims, and so prevents them from obtaining the security they are seeking, in the long term. Obviously, the inability to gain access to justice causes great psychological and emotional distress for these newcomers, in the short and medium terms. As lawyers on the ground, we see this every day. Not only do refugee claimants have trouble finding a lawyer, but they also have trouble finding help from organizations that provide housing assistance, for example.

Some people will say that while refugee claimants arrive in Quebec, they can quickly move elsewhere in Canada. In reality, the situation are quite different.

First, their mobility is limited, because they have to wait for their work permit in the mail, to be able to support themselves as soon as possible. They are living in a financially precarious state, when it is already difficult to access housing and the price of food is constantly going up. During this time, all of the social services available to help them integrate start in Quebec, in both legal and social terms. Once claimants have found a lawyer, rented a place to live and enrolled their children in school, it becomes a lot more difficult for them to go and live somewhere else. Obviously, we need to come up with a faster system for issuing work permits.

At the same time, we can't ignore the fact that when they arrive in Canada, these migrants can't be the given humane, calm guidance they deserve by border personnel. Because of the huge volume of claims, border personnel do not have the time needed to make sure the claimants properly understand the information that is essential to their case, and this causes major anxiety. Their psychological and emotional security suffers enormously, particularly in a system where the process is increasingly complex and calls for access to technology, something these newcomers only very rarely have. Everything happens within very short regulatory time frames.

In some cases, families are separated and it is hard for family members to access information about the others, for example if one of the family members is detained or hospitalized. That causes stress and panic for every family member who doesn't know the fate of the other one. Too often, they arrive at our offices in a state of disorientation and in extremely insecure circumstances. The lawyer then has to make up for the government officials by informing these people properly about their claim process.

To conclude, some resources have been put in place to try to spread claimants more evenly across Canada, which the safe third country agreement prevents. On that point, some people have been transferred from Quebec to Ontario. Unfortunately, some of them did not understand what was happening or did not want to change provinces. They really had no desire to go and live in Ontario and go through another migratory journey, having already suffered enough to get to Canada.

Some people detained in Quebec have been transferred to a detention centre in Ontario, while their entire family was living in Quebec, not in detention. Once a person was released, they had to make their own way back to Quebec. We can't imagine the anxiety experienced by the families at the thought of that kind of separation. We respectfully submit that these attempts to mitigate the situations that result from this agreement simply exacerbate the situation, in addition to being unsuccessful and counterproductive.

As well, simply closing Roxham Road would be even more devastating than the status quo if we kept the safe third country agreement. Keep in mind the many migrants who put their lives and security in danger by trying to cross our border in the middle of winter or by going through dangerous areas. Closing Roxham Road would not stop refugee claimants from coming to Canada, but if they crossed the border just anywhere, that would reduce the government's capacity to identify them quickly, as it can now do using their fingerprints and identity papers.

Ultimately, we respectfully submit that because of the safe third country agreement, the safety, security and health of migrant individuals and families are endangered not just in the short term, but also in the long term.

The repercussions extend over several years and can even ultimately strip our refugee claim system of its meaning: that people who deserve safety will be given Canada's protection.

Thank you.

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