Mamadou was only one of many
asylum seekers crossing into Quebec
that year. By July, arrivals of this kind
had increased from about 600 a month
to nearly 3,000. In August, the number
nearly doubled again, to over 5,500
asylum claimants. Many of these trav-
ellers were Haitians who had been liv-
ing in the U.S. but feared they would
soon lose their status.
Throughout 2017, 8,286 Haitians
applied for asylum in Canada, repre-
senting 16 per cent of all applications
made that year, the single-largest group.
At one point, the government deployed
about 100 soldiers to set up camps at
the Quebec–New York border and to
assist the RCMP and border agents
with security screening of the hundreds
arriving each day. Marjorie Villefranche
of Maison d’Haïti, a community ser-
vice for Haitian immigrants, told the
media, “There is an enormous amount
of fake information circulating saying
that it is easy to come to Canada....
They are hearing that Canada doesn’t
deport people.”
The U.S. had been offering Haitians
temporary status since 2010, when
Haiti experienced a catastrophic
earthquake that killed 250,000 and
forced thousands to claim asylum. In
its first months in office in 2017, the
new Republican administration had
signalled its intention not to extend
these protections.
The arrival in Canada of these Hai-
tian and other Black asylum seekers on
foot, often with children, could have
become a Black origin story for the
future. Canada might have bragged
about how we welcomed so many
Black people fleeing the United States
and the administration of that coun-
try’s 45th president. But by November2017, the detention processing, and
eventual rejection, of so many Hai-
tians showed that Canada didn’t want
Black asylum seekers, no matter what
threats they might have faced south
of the border.
Seven years after the earthquake,
Haiti was still dealing with housing
shortages and a cholera outbreak.
Despite Canada’s historic relationship
with Haiti and our significant interven-
tions into the country’s governance, we
have tried to keep Haitians at arm’s
length in Canada, and to make their
stay here temporary.WHILE THE RULES CONTINUE TO SHIFT,
THE VALUE OF WHITE IMMIGRANTS
OVER ALL OTHERS HAS NOT.
rd.ca 95