Toronto celebrates 'Undocumented Residents Day'

The City of Toronto celebrated "Undocumented Residents Day" on Tuesday as part of its effort to brand itself as a “sanctuary city.”

The term "undocumented residents" generally refers to individuals who initially entered Canada legally but remained in the country after their legal status expired. It also encompasses those who entered Canada illegally.

Everyone questioned as part of Privy Council focus group research says the federal cabinet is “headed in the wrong direction” on immigration. Researchers found opposition to record-breaking immigration targets was universal.

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The celebrations included an event at the city council chambers with activists urging the federal and provincial governments to bend to their wills.

The city organized an event to honour illegal immigrants with a panel featuring co-director of the FCJ Refugee Centre Loly Rico, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change Syed Hussan, and city bureaucrat and social justice advocate Denise Andrea Campbell, reports True North Centre.

Hussan called on the federal government to grant all illegal immigrants permanent residency, saying: “People stay here undocumented because there is nothing better, but that does not make this good. And so what has been happening around the world and in Canada is a campaign for regularization, which is to say that undocumented people should be able to get permanent residency.”

A study conducted by the Department of Immigration found that 46 percent of Canadians believe that helping unemployed Canadians should take precedence over recruiting skilled immigrants to fill labour shortages.

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He touted the efforts of groups like his in encouraging the creation of regularization programs to give illegal immigrants their permanent residency.

“Because of our collective effort, the federal government in December 2021 promised Canada a regularization program. And yet we sit here in August 2024 where this program is not being brought in,” said Hussan.

“But regularization is possible, it's been promised in this mandate, there’s still at least 14 more months of a Trudeau government and I think we can collectively win the rights of undocumented people as we have been fighting for for decades.”

He also called for a system wherein the City of Toronto would be able to grant legal status to illegal immigrants: "I think the city would love to be able to do that, I think that’s consistent with council policy.”

He also seemingly dismissed claims that illegal immigration and that immigration as a whole could be responsible for the affordability crisis: “The promise of shutting down the border isn’t going to fix the economy, it is going to be the bankers, the billionaires, and the bosses responsible. This is our moment,” he said.

Canada's population experienced its fastest growth in decades last year, with Statistics Canada reporting in March that the increase was driven by a surge in the number of temporary residents. The population grew by 3.2 percent in 2023, reaching 40,769,890 as of January 1, 2024. This marks the highest growth rate since 1957, when the population increased by 3.3 percent.

Frederic Payeur, a demographer at Quebec's provincial statistics agency, the Institut de la Statistique du Quebec, told the CBC that growth rates exceeding three percent have "never been seen in a developed country" since the 1950s.