Statements

On December 15, the Refugee Exclusion Act (Bill C-31, formally the "Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act") will be fully implemented.

Please watch, and share this video, of past and current immigration detainees and No One Is Illegal - Toronto organizers explaining the impacts of these new laws. Filmed by Liberation Cooperative Organization outside the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre.

WATCH & SHARE
https://vimeo.com/55622758

Among other things, these laws will mean even more immigrants will end up in in immigration detention.

Did you know that there have been nearly 95,000 immigrants that have spent time in detention in Canada since 2004? and that immigration detention is $50 + million business with private companies managing and operating immigration detention centres?

KEY FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DETENTION
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/ImmigrationDetention2012
Includes a flyer you can print and distribute

AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SECURITY CERTIFICATES
www.supportmahjoub.org & www.justiceforjaballah.org

As of December 15, 2012, our communities face:

* Mandatory detention: Many refugees deemed "irregular arrivals" or "smuggled", including children over the age of 16, will face mandatory detention upon arrival. Migrants will become one of the largest growing prison populations with Harper's prison expansion plan.

** Total persons detained since Harper came to power: Over 72,000
** Total persons detained (2010-2011): 8,838
** Percentage of persons detained in prisons: 35 percent (FY 2010-2011)
** Max. length of detention: Unlimited
** Average length of detention: 25 days (FY 2010-2011)
(Global Detention Project)

No One Is Illegal (NOII) Toronto has a long history of organizing against immigrant detentions, and in the course of this work supporting struggles for prisoner rights and for prison abolition. Today, on the one year anniversary of the 'G20 Main Conspiracy Group' plea deal that saw six of our comrades locked up while 11 were let go, we are joining with DAMN 2025 to speak out in support of our ally and friend Mandy Hiscocks’s application at the human rights tribunal in Ontario.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 8, 2012

We are looking for feedback. Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think of our organizing work and methods and the ways in which we communicate with you. It will only take ten minutes and we are excited about knowing what our supporters' think.

http://goo.gl/RZqli

Also, when you fill out the survey you get entered in to a draw to win an exciting collection of NOII stuff including:

+ choice of noii t-shirt (various sizes)
+ copy of 'migrant justice political graphics' by ryan hayes
+ noii logo stickers to make your water bottle/laptop/guitar case just that bit cooler
+ noii red and black balloons for that perfect touch to any occassion

Pictures & Videos at: http://honouringourcommunities.tumblr.com/ (check often!)
Take a picture of yourself and a sign striving for social justice and upload it here too!

Over 400 protestors took to the streets of Toronto Sunday night gathering outside Toronto's Royal York Hotel. Inside, Israel's apartheid institution Haifa University supported by Stephen Harper, Peter Munk, Ezra Levant and others had organized a ceremony to give Immigration Minister Jason Kenney an honorary degree.

On July 1st, immigrant and refugee allies interrupted Canada Day events at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, holding up massive foam letters that spelled out “Oh Canada, No Home for Refugees”, visible from balconies and rooftops in the surrounding area. This action was organized on the day that the federal Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) cuts went into effect, gutting a range of services delivering health care for refugees.

"Canada has a long history of extremely regressive immigration policies, such as the Chinese Head Tax. Cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program that provides health care for refugees, implementation of Bill C-11 and the recent passing of Bill C-31, otherwise known as the Refugee Exclusion Act, are all intensified efforts by this government to exclude and exploit immigrants and refugees while also denying them access to basic services", said Dr. Abeer Majeed.

Freedom to Move: Too many of us moved because we couldn't stay. We tried to escape war, environmental collapse, and social & economic oppression. We aspire for a world where people move freely and are not pushed out of their homes.

Freedom to Return: Places we called home are lost to us due to military/corporate occupation, imperialism, and climate collapse. We aspire for a world where people can return. Without fear of being targeted as queer and trans, as women, as people with disabilities, as racialized people, as political dissidents, and as Indigenous people.

Freedom to Stay: We toil in temp jobs, often living in fear without full status, targeted by the police and the capitalist state. We prosper by the theft of Indigenous lands. We aspire for a world where Indigenous nations live freely and migrants live in solidarity, decolonizing ourselves and our communities. We desire freedom without fear or indignity.