Eight months ago, asylum seekers in Quebec won a hard, long legal battle that gave them access to subsidized daycare.
Now that’s all up in the air.
The nation’s highest court agreed to hear a challenge from the Quebec government that granted asylum seekers access to subsidized daycare spaces.
The Quebec Court of Appeal concluded this past February that a provincial government’s regulation that excludes asylum seekers from gaining access to subsidized daycare, at $9.10 per day, amounts to a discriminatory measure against women and is a violation of the right to equality protected by section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Quebec Appeal Court found that by excluding persons seeking asylum, it has a disproportionately negative impact on women seeking asylum, and is therefore discriminatory as a result of its prejudicial effect.
“Women are historically disadvantaged in the workplace because they disproportionately take on childcare responsibilities,” held Justice Julie Dutil in Procureur général du Québec c. Kanyinda, 2024 QCCA 144. “The fact that asylum seekers alone are ineligible for the reduced contribution for subsidized childcare places clearly has a disproportionate effect on women in this group.”
Here’s an in-depth examination of the legal issues at play:
“Controversy erupts after Quebec Appeal Court grants asylum seekers access to subsidized daycare”