Access to daycares for asylum seekers: Quebec appealing to Supreme Court

Quebec is turning to the Supreme Court to prevent the children of asylum seekers from having access to subsidized daycares and CPEs in the province.

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, confirmed the information on Wednesday, without explaining all the reasons which pushed the government to choose this path.

On Feb. 7, the Court of Appeal ruled that asylum seekers holding a work permit could indeed entrust their children to a subsidized childcare service and benefit from the reduced contribution.

The court affirmed that the government’s regulation, which deprives asylum seekers of subsidized child care, discriminates against women and, therefore, contravenes section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This decision upheld the one rendered on May 25, 2022 by Judge Marc St-Pierre of the Superior Court, who had determined that the complainant, Bijou Cibuabua Kanyinda, was entitled to childcare services.

“We thought this super long legal battle was finally over after winning twice,” said Maryse Poisson the director of social initiatives at Collectif Bienvenue for refugee claimants. “Going in to appeal for us is again probably another year of legal fights, for a population that really just deserves to go out of their homes and work.”

Kanyinda, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, came to Quebec with her three very young children in October 2018 via Roxham Road, a crossing point that is now closed, and submitted an asylum request.

Before obtaining refugee status, Kanyinda had received a work permit and searched for a place for her children in three daycare centers.

Her requests were refused because the Reduced Contribution Regulation (RCR) reserves access to this service for people whose refugee status is recognized by Ottawa and not for those who are awaiting the federal decision.

Quebec says it is “sensitive” to the situation of asylum seekers, but that he daycare system already lacks space, adding that private daycares can be an option.

A refugee claimant and volunteer at Collectif Bienvenue came from Columbia in October 2022 to escape violence there. He says it’s impossible for him to afford a private daycare.

“Not having our daughter in daycare is really hard for the whole family to be able to schedule and advance in the steps to integrate,” he said. “To be fair to children, it’s important that they have this access, not depending on their status.”

Meanwhile at the school service centre of Montreal (CSSDM), it’s all hands on deck to enroll children of immigrants.

The service centre says they’re close to a crisis point because the demand to get into welcome classes has tripled in recent years.

“We’re getting to a point of saturation where we wouldn’t be able to welcome new students,” said Mathieu Desjardins, director of the CSSDM’s school organization. “If next year we’re continuing in the same path as this year and last year, we risk a breakdown because we can’t recruit enough personnel and we have an issue with the capacity of our schools.”

The CSSDM currently sees up to 100 students enrolling in the Francisation program every week .

“Since the start of the school year. we’ve had to add 88 welcome classes,” Desjardins said. “If it continues, we’ll have to add another 80 by the end of the year, so about 160 classes a year, equivalent to eight big elementary schools.”

At the CSSDM’s enrolment center for welcome classes, parents and children from different countries were in the waiting room Wednesday.

Amar Tawarie from India says his son is set to start school in September. “We visited last year for a welcome class.”

One woman from Sri Lanka says her daughter does not speak French and needed to be enrolled in the

This all comes as the Quebec government once again called on Ottawa to reimburse them 1 billion for costs incurred of receiving asylum seekers, adding that the influx of migrants is putting pressure on public services, especially in education. 

Waiting to enroll his three children into schools at the CSSDM, Albert Oyie from Cameroon says Quebec’s request for money is warranted. “The Canadian government needs to do more to satisfy the demand, so it can help with the teacher shortage.”

Back at the Collectif Bienvenue, Poisson says Quebec should avoid using divisive rhetoric.

“It’s not necessarily a crisis, it’s a need to invest a little bit more than in the past to be able to have those families function in our system.”

For the refugee claimant from Colombia, he wants access to subsidized daycare to be able to work and contribute.

“Every day my three year old wakes up and asks if she can go to daycare,” he said.

–With files from La Presse Canadienne