QUEBEC CITY -- Conservative leader Eric Duhaime is calling on Quebec’s main political parties to form a common front against Ottawa on the Roxham Road file.

In a press conference in Quebec City on Thursday, Duhaime said he wants to send a delegation to Ottawa to demand the permanent closure of Roxham Road.

“The climate is more favourable than ever for ... a Quebec delegation of five leaders to go to Ottawa. Quebecers like it when we work together," he said.

“It's about seeing what unites us. I think all political parties agree it is not normal that we have immigration that comes mostly from Roxham Road,” he added.

Last year, nearly 40,000 asylum seekers were intercepted at Roxham Road, an unofficial port of entry located in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Montérégie.

Since then, Premier François Legault has repeatedly stated that Quebec's capacity to receive asylum seekers has been exceeded, but his interventions have had little impact to date.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and in an English-language op-ed in The Globe and Mail, Legault argued that the pressure on public services in health and education was "untenable.”

Faced with this “illegal” immigration that has become a “scourge," the parties need to send an even stronger message to Justin Trudeau's federal government, according to Duhaime.

In the meantime, he proposed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police simply block the migrants’ way. “We turn them back!" he said, also mentioning the idea of a "fence.”

The Conservative leader was accompanied on Thursday by his former candidate in Thousand Islands, Ange-Claude Bigilimana, who recounted his journey to immigrate to Canada and spoke of the importance of using official channels.

When asked about Roxham Road, Bigilimana candidly admitted that he would have taken it himself in 2004 if he could, but “no self-respecting country has a territory that you can cross any way you want,” he said.

In a short scrum Thursday afternoon, Legault dismissed Duhaime's proposal to organize a visit to Ottawa with the leaders of Quebec's five main political parties.

“Well, listen, I don't think there is anyone in Ottawa who is not aware that there is a consensus in Quebec. We have a motion from the National Assembly; I think that's enough," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 2, 2023.