On March 6, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal by Quebec’s attorney general, who opposed granting the three children of a Congolese woman access to Quebec’s subsidized daycare on the grounds she was a refugee claimant.

Bijou Cibuabua Kanyinda came to Quebec in October 2018 from the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo with her three young children and immediately applied for asylum.

Her asylum claim was approved in January 2021. While waiting for that decision, she obtained a work permit and tried to get subsidized childcare so that she could work.

She was refused under a Quebec regulation limiting subsidized childcare to certain categories of residents, but not refugee claimants, making it impossible for her to work.

She took her case to court, arguing Quebec’s decision violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 15 (1) because it discriminates based on sex and citizenship.

A Quebec Superior Court judge ruled a Quebec regulation barring her children from subsidized daycare was not discriminatory, but the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled it was, and the Quebec attorney general appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.

Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows a government to limit Charter rights if such limits can be reasonably justified.

“The Attorney General of Quebec has not shown that this discrimination is justified under Section 1 [of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms],” wrote Justice Andromache Karakatsanis for the majority in the high court’s eight-to-one ruling, with Quebec Justice Suzanne Côté the sole dissenter.

Karakatsanis concluded that the Quebec regulation affects women refugee claimants who are likely to have primary child care responsibilities, making access to affordable childcare closely tied to their ability to work.

Bernard Drainville, a candidate to succeed François Legault as Coalition Avenir Québec leader and premier, reacted to the judgment on X.

“The Supreme Court judgment is a slap in the face to the thousands of Quebecers waiting for a daycare place, often for years.” Drainville wrote.

“There are 6,000 places in subsidized daycare filled by the children of asylum seekers. If I am elected, I will use the notwithstanding clause [in a new law] to give a priority to Quebecers for these services.”

“This is a new defeat for the CAQ in the courts,” said Québec Solidaire immigration critic Andrés Fontecilla in a statement, praising the Supreme Court decision and adding that Quebec’s CPE subsidized daycare network allows the children of newcomers to learn French and integrate into Quebec society.

“Subsidized daycare also allows immigrant women to work, often in public services,” he said. Depriving them of daycare would be “a major loss for our workforce.”

Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon found the Supreme Court ruling “worrying” because it granted asylum seekers the same rights as citizens.

In a Facebook post, Quebec Liberal leader Charles Milliard applauded the ruling, adding, “The key here is to create [daycare] places to support the network better,” and the federal government “should assume its real share of the costs welcoming asylum seekers.”