May Day

Convinced that organized communities can win radical demands and create real alternatives

Believing that the struggle for Status for All is the struggle for good jobs, housing, food, education, shelter, freedom, justice and dignity for all people

No One Is Illegal-Toronto calls its supporters and allies to take to the streets to demand Status for All on May Day – May 1, 2010!

On May 2, 2009, over 2000 community activists, migrants and allies took to the streets.

We occupied the Yonge and Dundas intersection in the heart of downtown Toronto to make visible the non-status people that this sweatshop city wants to hide away.

We dropped 50 foot banners that read 'No One Is Illegal' and 'Stop the Raids' to make clear that migrants, with or without status, working people and the poor will not be criminalized.

We went to the gates of City Hall dropping massive banners at its doors to insist that Toronto, Ontario and Canada cannot ignore us.

School by school, college by college, hospital by hospital, shelter by shelter, food bank by food bank - one after the other we are going to liberate our homes, our workplaces and our communities. We will make them sanctuaries for all residents. If the powerful few will not let us in to their house of decisions, we will change the decisions where they are put in to practice.

Saturday, May 3, 2008
Christie Pits Park (at Christie subway station)
12 Noon

*This is a child-friendly demonstration.
Food and drinks will be available.
There will be vehicles on-hand for those with reduced mobility.*

Millions across North America have taken to the streets in the last two years demanding Status for All! In Toronto, workers, students, trade unionists, activists and community members have led passionate demonstrations calling for justice and dignity for immigrants and refugees.

The last year has seen unprecedented targeting of refugees in Sanctuary. Asylum seekers have been arrested from schools, workplaces and even hospital beds. Families have been torn apart. Over 12,000 friends, family, and community members have been deported.

On March 14th 2008, the Conservative government introduced a series of amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), buried in Bill c-50, a 136-page "budget implementation bill". If passed, the Minister will have the discretion to refuse applications even where the applicants meet the elitist and racist criteria for permanent residence, to refuse to even examine humanitarian applications filed from abroad, and to arbitrarily set quotas on the "category" of person that can enter Canada – including quotas based on country of origin.

On Saturday May 5, 2007 over 2500 immigrants, refugees and supporters took to the streets of Toronto's west end to demand a national regularization program and a moratorium on detentions and deportations as well as access to city services regardless of status. The loud and energetic march, which included entire families, began at Christie Pits Park in little Korea and marched through several immigrant neighbourhoods including little Ethiopia and little Portugal to end at Dufferin Grove Park for a community concert and fair.

This action marked the third year in a row that No One Is Illegal-Toronto has been part of organising a National Day of Action for Status for All across Canada and it has continued to grow every year! The march was part of a week of actions for immigrant/refugee rights in Canada and the United States which began on May 1 in several US cities as well as Vancouver, and included marches in Montreal as well.

March and Community Fair
Saturday, May 5th. 12 p.m.
Christie Pitts Park (Bloor and Christie)
Community Fair at Dufferin Grove Park from 2:30pm-6pm

Everyday over 500,000 undocumented people across Canada, and over 80,000 in Toronto, live in daily fear of detention and deportation. They are our coworkers, fellow students, political activists, family, friends, and community members. Working in the backs of hotels and restaurants, as domestic and agricultural workers, as taxi drivers and construction workers, and in other jobs, undocumented and immigrant communities experience racial profiling, exploitative working conditions, and lack of access to city services.

On May 5th we will come together for our 3rd annual march to show our strength and continue to voice our demands. We will demand an end to detentions and deportations. We will demand access without fear to city services. We will demand a full and inclusive regularization program.

The march will follow week-long celebrations of workers rights worldwide, starting with the May Day demonstrations by our allies in the United States who are planning an even bigger turnout than the millions who turned out last May. Immigrant rights are workers rights and we will be commemorating the immigrant workers traditions of May Day with a strong trade unionist and workers contingent. Marching under the banner "Good Enough to Work, Good Enough to Stay," they will be calling for permanent status for all and not temporary workers permits. Temporary status is not enough to end the exploitation of migrant workers and instead creates further marginalization.