Quebec wants Roxham Road closed. This woman who made it across is building a new life
CBC
Five years later, Kate Onakpo can still remember the moment, standing at the edge of a short dirt path, when she gripped her daughter, then walked into Canada.
"My life changed from there. My new journey for me and my child started from that minute," Onakpo recalled recently.
Like many asylum seekers, she entered Canada at Roxham Road, a well-travelled unofficial border crossing in Hemmingford, 50 kilometers south of Montreal.
Onakpo and her daughter arrived in 2017 along with a wave of fellow Nigerians.
For the last five years, she has been working as a caregiver in Montreal — often bathing, feeding and caring for elderly patients.
In a recent interview, Onakpo said she left her home country to get away from her ex-husband.
With the goal of keeping her daughter safe, Onakpo quit her job in Lagos and headed to the U.S. — where she stayed for a week, before she went north.
Roxham Road was closed for much of the pandemic but reopened last November.
Quebec is calling for it to be shut once again. Premier François Legault said the province cannot house all the incoming refugee claimants.
"It's unacceptable," Legault said earlier this month. "It's impossible because we don't have the capacity."
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose federal government regulates the crossing, quickly shot down the idea, saying closing the road would not prevent asylum seekers from crossing the border.
Images of migrants crossing into Canada at Roxham Road have been the source of heated debate at both the provincial and federal level for years.
But for new arrivals like Onakpo, Roxham Road represents a pathway to a new life.
"I found hope here," Onakpo said, speaking from her home in Montreal.
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