Last week, Quebec Premier François Legault reached the peak of populism when he suggested that the government of Canada should set up refugee camps for asylum seekers arriving in Quebec and “mandatorily” remove half of the 160,000 asylum seekers already in the province.

Mind you, the premier did not use those exact terms. He talked about “waiting zones” modelled on the French “zones d’attente,” where some asylum seekers are detained for up to 26 days, usually before being sent back to where they came from. But let’s not fool ourselves: “waiting zones” are refugee camps. And “mandatory removal” does not mean anything if the use of force is not implied.