In its squabbles with Ottawa, the CAQ government does not shy away from any baseness to score points.
After community organizations were deprived of badly needed federal funding, it is now the Ukrainians fleeing the war here who are bearing the brunt of a disgusting power play.
Welcome to Quebec, but no RAMQ!
In short, the federal government has extended the residence visas (Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorizations (AVUCU)) of Ukrainians who fled the war until 2027, but Quebec is not renewing their RAMQ registrations in beyond the first months of 2025.
How can they stay in Quebec without health insurance coverage? What will happen to those who suffer an accident that requires urgent treatment?
What is shocking in this affair is that Quebec chooses to subject this uncertainty, this stress, to people who have already, for the majority of them, lost everything.
Fleeing war, leaving your family, your homeland, all your possessions, to settle, even temporarily, in a land of peace, requires incredible strength of character.
To comfort you, the Quebec government has chosen to wait until you are just well enough established to show you that you are just a bargaining chip in a power game that does not even concern you.
Always lower
Meanwhile, Le Chic Resto Pop, an organization that provides necessary food assistance to vulnerable seniors in eastern Montreal, is still waiting for a grant of nearly $700,000 from Ottawa.
Here too, the organization is taken hostage by Quebec which quibbles over the financing rules under the pretext that this encroaches on Quebec’s skills.
Unable to win our battles honestly, we use the most vulnerable as pawns.
