We did it! CBSA and Force Four Force have confirmed that footage from the immigration raid on March 13 won’t be broadcast!

A recent Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) memo cites “negative public response.” Thank you to everyone who signed petitions, endorsed letters, wrote and called the producers and broadcasters, spread the word and took action!

Diana Thompson, an Indigenous woman whose husband Tulio Renan Hernandez was filmed and has since been deported to Honduras, says “We all feel extremely relieved by the news and are grateful to everyone who spoke out. We want this episode and the whole show cancelled.”

This briefing memo, just released through an access-to-information request, also states that CBSA President Luc Portelance has now placed limitations on the filming of Inland Enforcement activities to situations involving individuals wanted for “serious criminality” or those featured on CBSA’s “most wanted” list. CBSA believes that this will “continue to highlight inland enforcement work while removing the key issue at play.”

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“CANCEL BORDER SECURITY” SAY 90 LEGAL, ADVOCACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

May 2 VANCOUVER, UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORIES – Ninety organizations are releasing an open letter calling for the cancellation of the TV show Border Security: Canada’s Front Line.

International and national human rights organizations, community groups, legal organizations, agencies and labour unions are urging Minister Vic Toews, Canadian Border Services Agency, Force Four Entertainment, and the broadcaster Shaw Media “to cancel, stop participating in, and end the broadcast of Border Security.”

Signatories include Amnesty International, Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal, BC Government and Service Employees Union, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Canadian Council for Refugees, Canadian Labour Congress, Chinese Canadian National Council, Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence, Council of Canadians, Idle No More, Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, Justice for Migrant Workers, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, Queer Migration Collective, Law Union of Ontario, and Simon Fraser University Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

The letter is linked here in full:
http://www.cancelbordersecurity.ca/#!letter-from-organizations/c39y

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Margot Kidder (“Lois Lane”) and 200 other cultural producers call for an end to racist TV show Border Security.

Read their open letter here:
http://www.cancelbordersecurity.ca/#!cultural-producers-letter/c1ken

The Honourable Vic Toews, Q.C., P.C.,
Minister of Public Safety
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P8

Dear Minister Toews:

Re: CBSA Involvement with “Border Security” Reality TV Show

On behalf of the National Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, I am writing to express concern about the involvement of the Canada Border Services Agency with a reality television show, “Border Security.” The CBA is a national association representing 37,000 jurists including lawyers, notaries, law teachers and students across Canada. The Association’s primary objectives include improvement in the law and in the administration of justice.

We understand that the CBSA has entered into an agreement with Force Four Productions, the production company for “Border Security.” The agreement, which has been widely circulated in the press, gives the CBSA broad control over the content of the show and allows the CBSA to prohibit broadcast of any material without giving reasons.

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By TIFFANY CRAWFORD, VANCOUVER SUN April 23, 2013

VANCOUVER – A group of artists is calling the Canada Border Services Agency to cancel its reality TV show following a raid at a Vancouver construction site last month. The group, including actors, directors, writers and musicians, has signed an open letter of concern calling on the CBSA, the Vancouver-based Force Four Entertainment, Shaw Media and Global to stop airing the series called Border Security: Canada’s Front Line.

“At best, this TV show is an invasion of privacy with questionable ethics on informed consent,” the letter states. “At worst, it can put the lives of vulnerable migrants and their families at risk by commercially exploiting their stories for broadcast.”

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