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Quebec discriminated against female refugee claimants by introducing regulations that denied them access to subsidized daycare spaces, Canada’s highest court said Friday,
leading to strong rebukes from members of the provincial government.
The Canadian Press reports that in an 8-1 ruling, the court said that blocking female refugee claimants from subsidized daycare threatens to marginalize them from society, violating equality rights guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“While all refugee claimants are denied access to subsidized daycare under the scheme, the discriminatory impact on women is unique because they carry a greater share of childcare responsibilities and the availability of affordable daycare is directly linked to their ability to work,” Justice Andromache Karakatsanis wrote on behalf of the majority.
The ruling was hailed by the UN Refugee Agency, saying the court has recognized “that access to childcare is not just a family issue, but a vital part of a woman’s right to economic independence and dignity.”
Reactions from Quebec’s political class were less laudatory, however. The governing Coalition Avenir Quebec under Premier Francois Legauult has roundly accused would-be refugees of straining the province’s service and threatening the future of the French language.
Family Minister Kateri Champagne Jourdain said that while she wants to take the time to analyze the decision, she lamented how the province “has had to absorb the arrival of thousands of children of asylum seekers.”
