CBC News Posted: Mar 15, 2013 9:21 AM PT
Construction workers who were filmed by a reality TV crew while they were arrested by border agents made their first appearance before the Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver on Friday.
Five workers are being detained pending hearings on their eligibility to stay in Canada, while a sixth was released on conditions.
Harper government responsible for CBSA made-for-TV debacle
By Michael Stewart| March 15, 2013. Rabble.ca
As the smoke is beginning to clear from Wednesday’s made-for-television raids of several Vancouver construction sites by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and their camera-crew partners looking for undocumented workers, the rage of British Columbians still burns bright. While it’s easy to castigate Force Four Entertainment, Inc. for choosing to produce such a monstrosity, this story isn’t just a question of the moral depravity of tabloid television, or even of the general commodification and passive enjoyment of systemic violence against racialized peoples (although it is that); it is critical to point out that the conditions which made Border Security: Canada’s Front Lines possible are the deliberate result of almost a decade of Conservative policies by the Harper government. Xenophobic and fearmongering immigration practices, the increased use of migrant workers and attendant reduction of their rights, and the militarization of Canadian border all unswervingly led to the appalling scenario we witnessed this week.
By James Keller, The Canadian Press March 15, 2013
VANCOUVER — The federal border agency’s decision to allow a reality television crew to film a raid that resulted in the arrest of a group of suspected illegal immigrants wrongly intimidated the men and violated their privacy, a lawyer for one of the workers told an immigration hearing Friday. The Canada Border Services Agency has been facing criticism since a raid at a construction site in Vancouver, where officers arrested members of a painting crew as a camera rolled for the reality TV program “Border Security.”
CP | By James Keller, The Canadian Press Posted: 03/15/2013 4:42 pm EDT
VANCOUVER – The federal border agency’s decision to allow a reality television crew to film a raid that resulted in the arrest of a group of suspected illegal immigrants wrongly intimidated the men and violated their privacy, a lawyer for one of the workers told an immigration hearing Friday. The Canada Border Services Agency has been facing criticism since a raid at a construction site in Vancouver, where officers arrested members of a painting crew as a camera rolled for the reality TV program “Border Security.”
by Travis Lupick on Mar 15, 2013 at 7:03 pm
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has come out against a television show filming searches and arrests of immigrants in the city. “I’m very concerned about the CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] raid that took place in conjunction with a reality tv show,†read an email attributed to the mayor. “It’s disturbing to see that kind of media exploitation take place—that personal suffering shouldn’t be treated as entertainment. Even if people have not come here legally, they deserve to be treated with basic dignity.â€
