EZRA LEVANT ｜ Closing Roxham Road isn't about building walls, it's about enforcing immigration laws
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Summary
100,000 people have crossed the border illegally from the United States to Canada at Roxham Road in rural New York. What on earth is going on at that border crossing? We talk to reporter Alexa Lavoie to find out.
Transcript
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Tonight, what on earth is going on at Roxham Road? Well, we'll have a long discussion with
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our investigative reporter, Alexa Lavoie. It's March 2nd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
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I don't know the exact stats, but it's got to be around 100,000 people have illegally crossed
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the border from New York to Quebec at Roxham Road, which is just a little dusty, dead-end
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road in rural New York where there's a little ditch and you walk across into Canada. It's not
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even an official crossing. It's not a crossing at all, but because there is literally nothing there
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and word has gotten out that you can cross with impunity, 100,000 people have done so. Now,
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who would cross from New York or from anywhere in the United States into Canada? The United States
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is a peaceful, fair, and just country. No one is a refugee from the United States. That's simply
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not true in fact, and neither is it true in law. The Safe Third Party Agreement, the treaty between
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our two countries, admits and asserts that anyone coming from one country to the other is by definition
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not a refugee and must apply for refugee status in the first country that they appear in. So if you're
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going from the United States to Canada, by definition, you're not a refugee. By definition,
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your first act in Canada is breaking the law. And finally, why would you flee the United States to
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Canada? Is it from our better weather? No, it's obviously because you're fleeing for another reason,
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and we've known over the last six or so years that people who flee include those being chased by
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American authorities for breaking their laws, including violence. And for people who just
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simply know that Canada's immigration system is so broken that once you get in our country,
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the likelihood of being deported is nearly zero. It's a safer, softer touch than the United States.
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Well, Pierre Polyev has said that he wants to close Roxham Road simply by putting up a fence there.
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That's all it would take. Instead of the concierge service of RCMP officers literally
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helping people bring their luggage across the road, Polyev has called for a 30-day time period
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to shut down the crossing there, something that is a popular call to action in Quebec.
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While Justin Trudeau wasn't having any of it, here's his response to Polyev's call to close the border.
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The conservative leaders suggested yesterday that Roxham Road can be closed without renegotiating
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the safe third country agreement. Is that the case? Can it just be closed without that discussion
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with the United States? Could somebody put up barricades and a big wall? Yes, if Pierre Polyev wants
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to build a wall at Roxham Road, someone could do that. The problem is we have 6,000 kilometers worth of
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undefended shared border with the United States. And as we saw with tragedies at Emerson, as we've seen
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challenges elsewhere across the country, people will choose to cross elsewhere. The only way to
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effectively shut down not just Roxham Road, but the entire border to these irregular crossings is to
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renegotiate the safe third country agreement, which is serious work that we are doing as a government
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right now. So people can toss out simplistic solutions. That's their right. But if someone
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wants to seriously solve the problem, you're going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the work
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as we are. You can see that Justin Trudeau was aching to say this is just like Donald Trump's wall.
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Of course, we don't need hundreds of miles of walls. We just need a fence there just to stop
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people from crossing. They're not crossing because there's a 6,000 mile undefended border. They're
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crossing because of this tweet put out in haste by Justin Trudeau, inviting the entire world to come.
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And as we know, now that southern states like Florida and Texas are taking their illegals and flying
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them to New York as a kind of political protest, those same illegals are then being put on buses and
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taxis up to Canada. There's actually a conveyor belt of illegal Americans being tossed around like a hot
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potato and given to Canada. Not because there's no fence at the border, but because Justin Trudeau
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positively invited the world to come to Canada and let it be known he would not deport.
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If you actually put a fence, it doesn't have to be a wall, just a small chain link fence,
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and simply turn people away. Within days, it would be known that, sorry, that back door is no longer
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open and you'll have to find another way. Well, joining us now to talk about this is our friend
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Alexa Lavoie from Montreal, who has traveled to Roxham Road, both on the Canadian side and recently
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on the New York side. Alexa, great to see you again. How are you doing?
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I'm fine. Now, tell me first, why has the Roxham Road issue flared up again? It's been there really
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since 2017, if I recall, when Justin Trudeau issued that hasty tweet saying the whole world is welcome
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to come. So it's been six years. Why is it in the news all of a sudden?
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Of course, we had like the new announcement from the mayor, Eric Adam, that was giving
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ticket to migrants a bus with taxpayer money for going up north, close to our border. And afterwards,
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we also known by Radio Canada, that is actually the French CBC, that same, some federal agent
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border from U.S. was doing this as a business to drive the migrant up north too, to our illegal
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border. So now we have, as I say, people with this business doing trafficking, trafficking
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immigrants to our illegal border. And now they are talking to renegotiate the third safe country
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agreement. But the thing is, now, when I was talking with one of the taxi driver from Plattsburgh,
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a lot of migrants know about Roxham Road via YouTube. Do you know where they heard about
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Roxham Road for most of them? YouTube. They watched it all on YouTube.
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Mostly YouTube. That's what they say. What do people say usually when they come to your car?
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They think it's safe to cross there. They're looking for asylum. Most of these people are
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pretty nice. So the information is spreading out there because the liberal government didn't do
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anything for years now. And so everybody around the world knows that if you want a better life,
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you can come to Roxham Road in Canada and cross illegally and you have
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maybe 99% chance to stay and be a citizen of Canada because it's what Justin Trudeau is doing.
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The system is broken right now. The immigration system is broken and the border is not respected
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at all by nobody from nowhere in the world. Everybody's coming here.
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For him to say, oh, we have a 6,000 kilometer undefended border. That's the problem. That's
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never been the problem. That border has been there forever. What's new is his policy of taking anyone,
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not sending anyone away and not even putting up a simple chain link fence. It's that Twitter tweet
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that did it. Now, by the way, you mentioned the mayor, Eric Adams. That's the mayor of New York City.
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I think that's one of the reasons things popped up in the news again. I know we talked about this the
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other day, that when the mayor of New York City is taking taxpayers' dollars to send migrants to
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Canada, when American border officers are doing it as a side job, then everyone knows Trudeau is a
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You come from New York and Plattsburgh? No, we come from Boston. Boston, and you took a bus to New York? No, we took,
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uh, we took, uh, we, uh, a friend took us in a van. And so you took, like, afterwards, a cab for coming here.
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Where are you from? Colombia. Colombia. And can I ask you quickly what, what, why? I can't, I can't give up my question.
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So recently, with the new announcement, Roxanne Brown began to be the story of the hour. Other journalists
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were there on the side of the U.S. to report on what is going on here in Canada with the illegal immigrants.
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And everybody look at Canada as, what is going on here?
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Well, there are more than before, because before that, it was two or two days occupied,
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more than a week, but then I went to the entire day.
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Are you coming from New York, from Plattsburgh? No.
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And why, why did you come here to cross in Roxanne?
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okay you are under arrest for illegal entry to canada you have the right to make salad
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i want to inform you that i have the police officer okay all right so now whatever you want
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is your decision now so here i have like multiple tickets of bus here is to new york from st louis
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you just have one of the example of the bus ticket that they receive in new york
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new york to plattsburgh just right there 66 dollars actually we have been told by one of the journalists
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of the side of us that one of the bus from new york was arriving to plattsburgh at 3 p.m so we
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mrs de ce côté-là vous êtes en éval de l'arrestation pour entrer illégal au canada
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ok pardon monsieur le garde le silence vous pouvez vous direz vous êtes vous avez pris l'autobus de new york à plattsburgh
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et vous avez pris après un taxi oui vous venez de quel pays république démocratique du congo ok vous êtes passé par l'amérique du sud
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that's incredible people from congo from nigeria for from peru they made their way all the way up from
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the mexican border if i understood you that one fellow said he came in from latin america which
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means he would have crossed into mexico and then made his way all and but he wasn't done
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now by the way america is a wonderful country with many great places but he knew that his best bet for
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the biggest welfare check the most lenient immigration laws no one's going to deport him
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soft touch is justin trudeau even california was not as appealing as coming to canada that is
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incredible and it's got nothing to do with a six thousand square kilometer border these people
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were already in america they already got to the golden land but they came to canada because trudeau
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said come on up everyone's welcome and uh recently we had uh in the news a refugee who actually say
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a tweet from justin trudeau saved me because i came to roxham road because of that tweet and yeah
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it's a thing everybody is like no why a tweet will make a difference but yes some people have heard
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about this tweet same if they didn't see it they heard about it by other people and that word has been
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spread all around yeah i'm not sure if in peru or nigeria or congo they're following justin trudeau
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on twitter but they don't have to they've got those human traffickers who know what to do and the fact
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that they had that big bus like to charter a big bus like that to come right to roxham road
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is insane you know the funniest part i mean there's nothing funny about any of this but the funniest part
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was that rcmp officer saying you are under arrest and but you didn't kick them out didn't put them
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in jail you're under arrest now come here and let's give you a hot meal and i'll rub your tummy
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and you'll fill out some paperwork and in 10 years if we can find you we'll have an immigration hearing
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like you're under arrest wink wink what a joke that part was
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you've been doing this since when you are doing it like uh the trip to roxham i've been doing about
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seven years now since they started so 10 12 years 12 years yeah the three years we shut down for the
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covet okay when the covert came we took the vans right off the road do you consider that is a good
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business the roxham road yeah there are a lot of people unless you're going to do it yeah it was real
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good when it first started now it's slowing down because there's so many competition now okay see
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that hundred thousand dollar mercedes-benz next to me he's a he's a he's a runner too he was a retired
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greyhound bus driver so he got he's got he's got a lot of info how many buses coming you have the two
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in the morning bus 4 30 5 30 morning bus 6 30 bus three o'clock in the afternoon bus 6 30 at night bus
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he's like come on all around the clock and there's usually seven eight cabs out here at the same time
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different companies how do you feel about the fact that now canadians see it as a really terrible
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problem for our country roxham road but you are encouraging and driving people to that border
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well they got to get there one way or another you know but they shut the border down they don't want
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them coming anymore shut the border down it's one way to stop it but as long as they keep coming they
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got to get there somehow so how else you're going to get there and they don't realize when they get
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dropped off here in plasper they think they're in canada anyway you know you got to tell them where
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they are they don't know where they are so you're you're telling them that they can go to canada
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no i'm not telling them they want to go to canada they think they're in canada when they get off the
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bus do you tell them they're not in canada this is usa then they say they want to go to canada
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that's when we bring them to canada and most of them are coming from which country nigeria africa
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turkish people do you think it's that helped them to bring them to roxham road yeah yeah so you're
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thinking that you are doing a good action for that because they say if they go back to their country
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they'll get murdered or killed and why they don't stay in us a lot of them stay here until the visas
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run out and can't they can't get them renewed and they gotta look for someplace else to go so you heard
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yourself by the taxi driver not only one bus per day but multiple one and he also saw some taxi coming
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from new york arriving here so as he told me it's a literally a nice and good business for them to
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make money so i'm gonna wait for the bus to come and i'm gonna try to talk with some of the immigrants
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and i'm going to drive through the border of roxham road but on the u.s side
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are they going to roxham how many of them a family a family
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so right now behind me a bus from new york just arrived a great home as soon as the bus park we have
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about eight eight vans ready to bring them to roxham road so i'm going to go over
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there and i will have the footage of them arriving at the border let's check it out
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so what country do you come from? i come from haiti and why are you coming from roxham today?
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everyone knows how to go in haiti it's a bit difficult and complicated
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you knew you could go here in roxham? i don't know and in life we have to try and look
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we do everything we do everything it works it works it works it works it works
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where did you hear that there was a way to go to Canada to go in?
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do you think of myself there was a way to go in Canada to try to cross these new ways to go down to Canada we said
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I think that this is a winning issue for Pierre Polyev.
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I think that this is a winning issue in English Canada
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And I think that even other immigrants are so appalled
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by the fact that these people just walking right in
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when legal immigrants went through such a process.
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And I think it's another difference between him
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I mean, Aaron O'Toole did visit Roxham Road, it's true.
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But I think the way that Polyev is fighting it,
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I'm mildly encouraged by his making this an issue.
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But I know that Justin Trudeau will do anything to keep this open
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because every one of those people, he sees a future liberal voter.
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I would say that don't forget also that you have like a big part of Francois Legault.
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He actually been really active on what he was doing as a step
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First of all, he went to Washington to talk with the ambassador
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for working on the third safe country agreement
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to stop what he's doing with the ticket of the bus.
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And he also wrote an open letter to Justin Trudeau
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to ask him to send all the migrants, starting right now,
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He doesn't want to keep any other migrants anymore.
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He wants to have the money to pay back all the damage
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and the costs related to the illegal immigration, of course.
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And he's also called out Justin Trudeau to say,
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You need to do it and you need to make it respected by other people.
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So the step of Francois Legault was pretty calculated.
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And we see that we see more and more pressure on Justin Trudeau
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but also from the opposition of the Conservative Party.
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I want to play some footage of your recent trip there.
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And there's some disturbing footage of one human trafficker.
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He shows them how to smuggle themselves across the border.
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He gives them, like, this is not a regular taxi driver.
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He's not going to be waiting outside a bar on a Saturday night for a $10 cab fare.
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He's going to be taking people from Plattsburgh or maybe even New York City,
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charging them a few hundred dollars and showing them how to cross the border.
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He's a coyote if he was on the southern border.
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Watch this footage of Alexa Lavoie on the American side.
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When the bus arrived in Plattsburgh, several taxis surrounded the vehicle.
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It was hunting migrants and taxis were negotiating their prices.
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One of the drivers was immediately aggressive with me when I was trying to do my job.
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Don't, don't, don't scream to me and don't be rude.
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I will break that s*** and you are going to be complaining.
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Are you doing that because you are doing the transportation to Roxham Road?
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I then redrew to avoid provocation and drove to Roxham Road to wait for the taxis.
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Every time I show you, I'm going to break that phone.
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By the way, we've retained legal counsel to assist you.
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We're going to try and find some justice for you.
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And as you know, we will pursue anyone who touches a rebel.
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What was so crazy is that the RCMP were a few feet away.
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But because you were standing on the New York side, they didn't have the jurisdiction to walk the 10 feet to arrest this man.
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And I want to reassure our viewers that we have hired a lawyer and we are.
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And Alexa, in fact, has made a police statement.
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Well, Alexa, as you know, we will stand with you on that.
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Thanks for being brave and not being scared by these bullies and human traffickers.
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I appreciate you going to such lengths to get us that report.
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And I invite everybody that, you know, if you want to stand with me and help me to fight
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against this trafficker that needs to be accountable, go to standwithalexa.com and chip in what you
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can for me to be able to afford my lawyer in the U.S. site.
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Alexa Lavoie, our chief correspondent in Quebec.
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So, you know that Roxham Road is just not a problem of migrants, but it's a problem of
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For our security and also for our border, we need to take action.
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Give what you can for offset my legal costs because we need to make Canada and U.S. border