Protesters line streets across Quebec, call out immigration program's abolition
CBC
Hundreds of people gathered for protests in seven cities across the province Saturday, including in Montreal and Quebec City, speaking out against the Quebec government's decision to scrap a popular immigration program and calling it inhumane.
The province abolished the Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ) in November, leaving thousands of temporary workers across the province in limbo and forcing some to return to their countries of origin.
Protester Mariia Kolosova moved to Quebec from Ukraine in 2023, with the hope of remaining in the province through the PEQ.
She studied French rigorously for years and selected a job in the tourism industry, in order to increase her chances and fit into the program's eligibility criteria.
Kolosova was trying to gather enough experience to apply when the program was suddenly suspended and then cancelled.
"The reason I came to Quebec, one of the reasons, was [because] my chances were quite high," said Kolosova at Montreal's rally. "Ukrainians, many of us, we don’t have a place to [go] back to. It’s not that easy to change your life from [scratch] again."
The PEQ was a common pathway to permanent residency in the province, allowing people who had a certain level of French and who fit certain criteria to apply for selection certificates from the Quebec government.
Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge recently replaced it with a skilled workers program known as the PSTQ, which selects newcomers through a more complex, points-based system that prioritizes those who live in regions outside Montreal and who work in certain sectors like health care and education.
Florent Pigeyre, an advisor for French citizens living abroad, said he's helping newcomers in Montreal co-ordinate a lawsuit against the Quebec government.
"I see a lot of [immigrants] contact me because the families are breaking apart, because they have to separate and go back to their country of origin," he said.
"It was not the plan. It’s not what had been sold to them from the Quebec government."
Many, Pigeyre said, came to Quebec because of recruitment efforts abroad. They were told of the possibilities the PEQ would offer them, he said, which encouraged them to leave their lives behind.
But that promise has been broken and the criteria have drastically changed with the PSTQ, he said.
Aram Musco, who moved to Montreal from France for his studies, had also hoped to settle in the province. But his future is uncertain.
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