May Day

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.

Toronto, May 27, 2006 - Over a thousand immigrants, refugees, non-status people, trade-unionists and other supporters took to the streets as part of Toronto's mobilization for the Status for All! National Day of Action. Participating groups included the Canadian Auto Workers, the Philippine Women's Centre as well as other Filipino organizations, the Iranian Federation of Refugees, Portuguese and Hispanic groups, including the Support, Don't Deport Coalition and the Centre for Spanish Speaking People, the Canadian Tamil Congress, the Canadian Labour Congress, CUPE, KAIROS, and many others.

The march was led by Kimberly and Gerald Lizano-Sossa, the 14- and 15-year old brother and sister targeted and detained by immigration enforcement at their school, and slated for deportation alongside their parents at the end of their school year. Kimberly and Gerald were joined by their 2-year old Canadian-born sister Joshlynn, their parents and extended family.

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Stop the Deportations!
STATUS FOR ALL!
Saturday, May 27, 2006
National Day of Action
(Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal)
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Across Canada, migrants, refugees and their allies will demonstrate against the deportation and detention of migrants and refugees, and for a full, inclusive, unconditional and ongoing regularization program, meaning STATUS FOR ALL!

Building on ongoing organizing efforts led by migrant communities across the Canadian state, we are demonstrating because hundreds of thousands of people live without status, while hundreds of thousands more are exploited by the arbitrary and racist policies of Immigration Canada. Thousands of migrants are forced to live in poverty, without sufficient access to health care or education, and in great fear of being detained or deported, all the while being the most exploited in the workplace.

We are demonstrating as part of a struggle for self-determination as migrants, immigrants and refugees, supported by our allies.

Join us on May 27, in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and elsewhere. We refuse to be invisible; we refuse to live in fear. We demand STATUS FOR ALL!