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The next step is to take it on the road.

“We have to go to the source,” Dubourg said Monday.

So he’s going to Florida to do Creole-language interviews and meet community leaders among Miami’s Haitian diaspora. Not all those coming to Canada are from there, Dubourg said, but the city has more than 200,000 Haitians and a slew of influential media outlets.

What’s behind the surge in Haitian asylum seekers in Canada is an upcoming change in U.S. immigration policy that will see deportations to Haiti resume after a lengthy pause.

When the Trump administration signalled the change in May, information began circulating on social media and other channels suggesting Haitians in the U.S. try to enter Canada, where they’d receive a warm and easy welcome.

The cold truth of Canadian policy, however, is that only about 50 per cent of Haitians who file for asylum in Canada receive it and the Canadian government has resumed deportations to that country.

“It’s important to tell them that before they sell their things, before they take any kind of decision (to come),” Dubourg said.

“They have to know full well what can happen.”

The startling spike in arrivals and how the government is handling them has prompted anti-immigration groups to start mobilizing across the country. A protest — and counter-protest — were held in Quebec City over the weekend and other rallies are being scheduled in Canada in the coming weeks amidst criticism being levied against the Liberal government that they are losing control of the border.