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News
The following groups have recently endorsed: Black Action Defence Committee Our movement builds! Onwards to May 3rd!
New Endorsers!! See list of over 60 endorsing groups and organizations: May Day of Action Endorsers *This is a child-friendly demonstration. 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. We continue to fight against the Conservative government's ongoing attacks on migrant communities. 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. In the face of intimidation and fear, our communities have refused to be silenced. Together, we have forced immigration enforcement out of Toronto District schools. Inspired frontline community workers have taken up the struggle for Access Without Fear. We have fought and won a full Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) policy at many community agencies.
The Movement For Migrant Rights Continues to Grow! AMNI Student Group - University of Toronto
The Movement For Migrant Rights Continues to Grow! AMNI Student Group - University of Toronto
Washington Post Mount Rainier Council to Vote On Becoming 'Sanctuary' City By Jackie Spinner The tiny city of Mount Rainier is considering whether to declare If the City Council approves the proposal, the eclectic city of 9,000 Mount Rainier City Council member Pedro Briones, who proposed the Briones added: "Until we have more effective national immigration The five-member, nonpartisan council is expected to vote on the Last year, Prince William County supervisors approved a resolution
Watch the video (Courtesy of our comrades at Stolen From Africa): Toronto J26 Action Video On Saturday, January 26th actions in Mississauga, Ontario took place at the Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre (the enforcement arm of Citizenship and Immigration Canada) as part of an action in solidarity with two men in sanctuary in Vancouver and Montreal. Over 100 demonstrators from Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, London and other cities in southwestern Ontario organized and mobilized to deliver written statements in solidarity with Laibar Singh and Abdel Kader Belaouni and calling on STATUS FOR ALL! At 10:30am on Saturday morning, a bus load of demonstrators coming from downtown Toronto linked up with dozens of members of the Sikh community who came prepared with drums, a food truck and signs reading "End State Racism" and "No One Is Illegal". Demonstrators rallied outside of the Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre on Airport Road before marching to the building in an attempt to deliver the letters of support to the GTEC officials. GTEC's response...to go on lockdown....unwilling to even allow a small delegation to deliver the letters staff and security at the GTEC office locked the doors and barricaded the entrances in an effort to shut out the people seeking justice for Mr. Singh and Mr. Belaouni. Chants of "Let them Stay" and "Status for All" flooded the building and could be heard from miles away! Gurratan Singh Dhaliwal from the Sikh Activist Network reminded the crowd that "this isn't just about Laiber Singh and Abdel Kader Belaouni, but all people living here without status! We demand status for all!" The actions were organized as part of National Days of Action called in Montreal and Vancouver in solidarity with Abdel Kader Belaouni and Laibar Singh respectively. As immigration enforcement increases its targetting of Laibar Singh and Abdel-Kader Belaouni, people across Canada are demonstrating in the thousands to demand justice for non-status people living in sanctuary, and to demand status for all!
We have just received confirmation from the Freeman family that Gary Freeman has withdrawn his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and will face extradition to Chicago's Cook County Prison at any moment. Natercia Coehlo, Gary's wife, is planning on joining Gary in Chicago to continue to fight for his freedom. We are putting a call out to all allies and friends in the Prisoners' Justice movement in Canada and the United States to please send us contacts in Chicago that may be able to support Gary Freeman's case there. Any information can be emailed to: nooneisillegal@riseup.net The family is deciding next steps as to what they feel will be helpful from folks in Toronto and we will be keeping you up to date as soon as we have information. Please stay posted. You can get more information on Gary Freeman by visiting his website www.freemandrum.org The following is Gary's most recent statement posted on his website...
UPDATE! URGENT ACTION REQUIRED TO STOP DEPORTATION! METRO VANCOUVER - An attempt to deport a paralysed man back to India on International Human Rights Day fell apart after a grass-roots protest at Vancouver International Airport Monday literally halted traffic and prevented border and immigration agents from taking custody of him. By mid-afternoon the Canada Border Services Agency halted its plan to deport Laibar Singh after it concluded that it would be too risky for its agents to walk out to a waiting taxi in which the elderly man was sitting. Between them and the curb were as many as 2,000 protesters, many of them members of an Abbotsford-area Sikh temple that had rallied in support. "For safety and security reasons Mr. Singh's removal has been delayed," Derek Mellon, a CBSA spokesman said, adding that the agency wouldn't discuss publicly any future attempts it may make to remove him. Singh's reprieve became known a couple hours before, after CBSA officials told Vancouver International Airport's operations centre that they'd bent to the will of protesters and temporarily lifted the deportation order. The decision was made shortly before a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong was supposed to take off with Singh on board. But in effect, Singh's removal was all but impossible after his taxi was surrounded by people who refused to let him be taken into YVR's international terminal. CBSA told leaders of the protest that they wouldn't go out to the taxi and retrieve Singh because they believed people would get violent, according to one of the leaders.
*** Fri Dec 7 @ 4:00-4:30 pm: Action at Vancouver Citizenship and Immigration Canada Offices (300 West Georgia). *** Sat Dec 8 @ 2 pm: Rally at Surrey Immigration Offices. 13450 102nd Avenue Surrey (between 134th and 135th Street). 1 block from Surrey Central Skytrain Station *** Mon Dec 10: details tbc but pending any response from the government to reverse this unjust deportation, there will be a convergence at the Vancouver International Airport. Transport arranged, so please mark the date if you are able to! On one of the coldest days thus far in the Lower Mainland, approximately 200-300 people- including elders and children- braved the weather to rally in support of Mr. Laibar Singh in front of the Immigration offices in Surrey on Sunday December 2. All those in attendance expressed their outrage and anger at the Conservative government for pushing forward with this inhumane decision to deport a paralyzed man despite the outpouring of community support. Laibar Singh came to Canada in 2003 and his refugee claim of persecution at the hands of state police has been rejected based mostly on minor inconsistencies. While in Canada, Mr. Singh worked as a labourer, doing one of the many low-wage jobs that rely on immigrant and refugee labour. Unfortunately, Mr. Singh's life suddenly and irreversibly changed when he suffered a cerebral aneurysm in June of 2006 and is now paralyzed. With a pending deportation for July 2007, Laibar Singh took sanctuary in the Abbotsford Sahib Kalgidhar Darbar Gurudwara. While in sanctuary, Mr. Singh's health deteriorated and he had to be hospitalized. On Monday August 13, while in the hospital, Abbottsford police and Canadian Border Services Agency officers detained Mr. Laibar Singh. Due to immense community and political pressure, Mr. Singh was granted a 60-day stay first on August 20th and then another stay on October 20th 2007.
Canada's guest workers Not such a warm welcome http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10177080 The temporary foreign workers pouring into Canada are often exploited Times had caught up with the sprawling brewery in the town of Barrie, an hour's drive north of Toronto. Canadians were drinking less and less beer, especially the traditional mass-produced brands. So Molson, the biggest of them all, closed the brewery and sold the property. The new owners were soon pandering to a different vice˜marijuana. When police raided the plant in 2004, it was producing four crops a year of 30,000 high-grade, hydroponically-grown plants, worth around C$100m ($102m). Along with the pot jungles set up in 40 mammoth brewing tanks, police found a dingy windowless dormitory and living quarters for dozens of workers. The only people charged were nine "gardeners"; the owners escaped prosecution. They may be less lucky next time. The police have launched a new investigation into a bottled-water business they are now running out of the old brewery, involving another fast-growing, but even shadier, area of Canada's economy: the exploitation of temporary foreign workers. Among the staff at the factory, police found 11 Filipinos, lured to Canada with the promise of jobs paying up to C$23 an hour. Some sold their homes or took out loans to cover C$10,000 or more in fees demanded by labour brokers. But once in Canada, they were "sold" to unscrupulous employers, kept in an isolated rural house, and forced to do menial jobs earning (if it paid at all) a fraction of what they were promised. "They were economic slaves," said a Barrie policeman who chanced upon them, "It turned my stomach". |
No One is Illegal (Toronto) is a group of immigrants, refugees and allies who fight for the rights of all migrants to live with dignity and respect.
We believe that granting citizenship to a privileged few is part of a racist immigration and border policies designed to exploit and marginalize migrants. We work to oppose these policies, as well as the international economic policies that create the conditions of poverty and war that force migration. At the same time, it is part of our ongoing work to support and build alliances with Indigenous peoples in their fight against colonialism, displacement and the ongoing occupation of their land. WE DEMAND:
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