Yesterday morning, close to 100 street-level advertisements were replaced with immigrant justice and pro-student strike messages.

Members of Le Collectif No Borders replaced the ads, opening up private advertising booths operated by Astral & Pattison in various Montreal neighborhoods and covering corporate advertising with messages of solidarity, resistance and hope.

The posters were put up on advertising panels in the following Montreal neighborhoods: Parc Extension, Rosemont, Plateau-Mt-Royal, Villeray, St-Michel, Montreal-Nord, St-Henri & Centre-Ville.

-> Photos of the various posters and messages, with a map, are available at: www.cecinestpasunepub.net

-> The original posters can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lecollectifnoborders

Some of the slogans on the posters include: Même sol, même droits / Frontières = Repression / Cité sans frontières / Solidarity City / Statut pour tous! / Un monde sans frontières, un monde imaginaire? / Chaque annee
les oiseaux parcourent des milliers de kilométres. Pourquoi pas nous? / Frontières – loi C31 – loi 78 – atteinte à la liberté. / Les frontières tuent. / Fuck les frontières. / Première, deuxième, troisième génération:
Nous sommes toutes immigrant-e-s sur une terre autochtone. / Indignez-vous. / La rabia del pueblo. / Tous et toutes uni(e)s pour un statut pour tou(te)s. / Solidarité, entraide, ouverture. / No borders, no
nations, stop the deportations. / Non aux détentions. Abolissons les prisons. / Mettons fin à la guerre contres les immigrantEs et réfugié-e-s. / Personne n’est illégal.

Yesterday morning’s action directly challenges the capitalist advertising that clog our visual cityscape. In doing so, Le Collectif No Borders reclaimed public space and visibility for social justice messages, announcing our struggles for self-determination and against the criminalization of migration.

The corporate ads were replaced as an act of solidarity at a time of escalating attacks on migrant communities. At present, it is estimated that more than 400 migrants remain behind bars in immigration detention
facilities across the country. Deportations have also increased by more than 50% over the past decade, with more than 13,000 deported in 2009 alone. In February 2012, the federal Conservative government introduced
the Refugee Exclusion Act (Bill C-31) that creates a racist, two-tiered refugee determination system. Yesterday’s action also included messages of solidarity and support with Quebec’s ongoing student general strike,
including denunciations of the new special law (Bill C-78).