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Still, Councillor Joe Mihevc said the importance of the vote should not be downplayed. It shows “council is supportive of making sure that everyone in this city, regardless of status, is a welcome Torontonian and that we’re not going to act as agents of [Citizenship and] Immigration Canada,” he said.

In the end, the motion passed with relative ease; only eight councillors, out of 37 present, voted against it. But the hours leading up to the final vote were filled with vitriol and rhetoric.

Opponents of the motion charged that a vote in favour would undermine the value of Canadian citizenship and act as an explicit endorsement of illegal immigration. After relaying an anecdote about a jean jacket with a Canadian flag on it that was once passed among his teenage friends, Councillor David Shiner said “If you’re not here legally, you should not be getting the services” paid for by citizens and other legal residents.

[W]e’re not going to act as agents of [Citizenship and] Immigration Canada

Councillor Karen Stintz added that the focus should be on helping migrants get into the official system, not making it easier for them to live outside of it. “This report says, let’s pass over the fact these people don’t have documentation,” she said. “Let’s make it easier for them to get services.”

Supporters of the motion, meanwhile, made themselves visible throughout city hall Tuesday. Wearing yellow T-shirts printed with the slogan “Access Not Fear,” they handed out pamphlets and occasionally booed and hissed when opponents of the motion spoke. When the vote passed, the group let out a collective cheer, before scattering for celebratory pictures and hugs.

After the vote, Mr. Mihevc, who earlier in the debate compared Mr. Shiner’s zeal for upholding the law to that of Javert, the villain from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, said the motion should allow every Torontonian, including “citizens, landed immigrants and undocumented folks” to access services like the TTC and the public library without having to worry about being asked about their immigration status. “What that will do,” he said, “is it will bring folks out of the shadows.”