Trudeau gov’t dissuades migrants from coming to Canada in latest ad campaign

In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed migrants in response to deportation efforts by President Donald Trump. A new ad campaign seeks to undue the damage done by the Liberals' mass immigration agenda.

Alex Dhaliwal
  |   December 04, 2024   |   News   |   1 Comment

The Trudeau government has warned migrants and illegal immigrants not to come to Canada amid a significant backlog of filings.

In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to “welcome” all those “fleeing persecution, terror, and war” in response to President Donald Trump’s deportation of illegal immigrants.

“At some point, Trudeau has to send a new message,” claimed Québec Premier François Legault last January, noting the province has “thinly stretched” resources to accommodate more migrants.

According to the Department of Immigration, a series of advertisements, running in 11 languages, will try to stop migrants from coming to Canada, representing a last-ditch effort to save the Liberal Party’s depleting public stock. They reduced immigration targets in October to no avail.

“Claiming asylum in Canada is not easy. There are strict guidelines to qualify. Find out what you need to know before you make a life-changing decision,” one ad reads.

Critics argue their effectiveness will be limited without legislative changes to cull bogus refugee claims, reported True North. The ads will run for four months at a cost of $250,000. 

Department officials also note that internet searches on seeking asylum in Canada will lead to government-sponsored content to dissuade newcomers from entering the country.

“Quebec is at a breaking point because of decisions by this bad actor,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said, pointing to Trudeau in November. “Last time Trump arrived at the White House, he opened a ‘welcome centre’ at Roxham Road.”

The province had 597,140 non-permanent residents in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 295,147 in 2022, according to Statistics Canada data. The percentage of non-permanent residents in Canada has doubled from 3.3% to 6.6% over three years.

Poilievre clarified the 2017 message “brought tens of thousands of people, without housing, without jobs, without health care.”

“Protecting our immigration system and our borders has always been top priority for this government,” Trudeau told the Commons November 21.

Conservative immigration critic Tom Kmiec accused the Trudeau government of allowing bad actors to abuse the system, leading to a backlog of 260,000 refugee claims.

Among the “bad actors” include “human smugglers, unscrupulous consultants, and applicants.”

“Trudeau and his incompetent Ministers have thoroughly broken our immigration system. Trudeau made it easier to game the system and claim asylum in Canada as the skyrocketing numbers will show,” Kmiec told True North. 

“It will take more than an advertisement claiming the opposite to fix it.”

François Bonnardel, Québec’s Public Security Minister, told reporters Tuesday that his province has no intention of facing the brunt end of “Roxham 2.0.” 

Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, asylum seekers in Canada or the U.S. could make their claim in the first country they enter. However, a loophole allowed those who entered Canada through an unofficial crossing to remain in the country without the immediate threat of deportation.

The prime minister closed that loophole last March but has yet to curb the flow that has since diverted to airports, going from 2,320 in 2015 to 41,350 last year, according to Kmiec, of whom many are Mexican nationals.

As reported by CBC News, Trudeau told Trump last week that Canada addressed U.S. concerns by strengthening visa requirements for Mexicans and reducing immigration targets to no avail.

Meanwhile, some 25,000 illegal immigrants tried entering the United States from Canada this year, according to the province of Québec. Most illegal crossings occurred at the “Swanton Sector,” a stretch of land where Ontario and Québec meet the borders of New York State, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

The number of illegal immigrants currently living in Canada is unknown, but an estimated 500,000 people could be in the country without status, according to an April 24 briefing note titled Undocumented Migrants.

The Trudeau government has promised an undisclosed number of “measures” to enforce Canada’s immigration laws, following threats of a tariff war by President-elect Donald Trump.

“There is work to be done here to make sure people aren’t going in irregularly into the United States,” Marc Miller, the Minister of Immigration, told reporters on November 26. 

While illegal crossings since 2007 never exceeded 1,000 people annually through the area, a sudden rise to 7,000 last year prompted a significant surge.

Overall, illegal border crossings from Canada into the U.S. amount to a fraction of the movement across the northern Mexican border. A whopping 56,000 people entered from Mexico this past October alone.

Minister Miller admits Canada cannot allow its problems to bleed over into its ally’s borders. When asked what measures were tabled, he revealed the RCMP could be deployed to the border, with a “well detailed” plan expected in the coming days.

“If the trend continues, we will have to reassign agents to Lacolle,” warns Yanniv Waknine, third national vice-president of the Customs and Immigration Union.

Following Trump’s promise to conduct mass deportations of illegal immigrants, and a 25% tariff on all Canadian exports, dozens of migrants have been seen at the Lacolle border crossing to seek asylum.

The Trudeau government has until the president-elect’s January 20th inauguration to address its porous borders.

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Alex Dhaliwal

Calgary Based Journalist

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2024-12-04 19:41:01 -0500
    This is like closing the barn door after the horse bolted. Because of Trudeau’s childish virtue signalling, we have to pay the price. If he isn’t thee worst prime minister Canada has had, tell me who is or was.