This letter was first presented at a meeting to Vancouver Pride Society in February 2017 and is now being released publicly on May 11, 2017.

Open Letter to the Vancouver Pride Society,

We write this letter as LGBTQIA2+ organizations and individuals and anti-racist community groups with majority queer and trans membership based on unceded Indigenous Coast Salish territories.

We write to support Black Lives Matter-Vancouver in their calls for the Vancouver Pride Society to remove any and all presence of uniformed police officers (VPD and RCMP) from marching as an institution in the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2017 and onward.

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VIDEO: “Guantánamo of the Pacific”: Australian Asylum Seekers Wage Hunger Strike at Offshore Detention Site

A massive hunger strike is underway at what some are calling “the Guantánamo Bay of the Pacific.” TSome have barricaded themselves behind the detention center’s high wire fences; others have resorted to increasingly drastic measures such as drinking washing detergent, swallowing razor blades, and even sewing their mouths shut to protest their confinement.

Watch Democracy Now video here: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/guantanamo_of_the_pacific_australian_asylum

Are you already violating the feds’ new anti-terror bill?

Harper introduced Bill C-51, a sweeping piece of legislation that covers everything from what you’re allowed to say and write to who can board a plane, what happens to your tax information and how long you can be detained without charge.

 http://globalnews.ca/news/1803553/are-you-already-violating-the-feds-new-anti-terror-bill/

My call from a former hunger striker inside the Lindsay Superjail

In recent months I’ve been receiving collect calls from a man who’s being held at the Central East Correctional Centre, also known as the Lindsay Superjail. He’s one of about 200 immigration detainees who began hunger strikes at the jail in September 2013 to protest lengthy detentions and seemingly endless immigration hearings. More than a year later, many of them are still in a maximum-security purgatory that sounds like hell on earth.

https://nowtoronto.com/news/my-call-from-a-former-hunger-striker-inside-the-lindsay-supe/

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1) Video: Comedian’s take on immigrants stealing jobs in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kvY9bVDi0&feature=youtu.be

2) Video: Migrant baby Alpha born in jail, still there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9pgveUowjw

3) A bad year for Canadian citizenship “The reform has made it possible for citizenship to be withdrawn at the whim of politicians. In the year to come, it will become clear which citizens will be targeted for removal and who will be extended the privilege to belong.”. Read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/01/03/a_bad_year_for_canadian_citizenship.html

4) Border Services ramping up arrests, advocates say “Nearly 600 people in the Pacific region were removed between April and November. Community groups who work with undocumented migrants are reporting an increase in arrests of workers by the Canada Border Services Agency in recent months.” Read more http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Border+Services+ramping+arrests+advocates/10461322/story.html#ixzz3LeqyCzit

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALL NEWS EDITORS

RALLY TO DEMAND INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH OF KURDISH REFUGEE HOSSEIN BLUJANI

WHAT: Rally to Demand Investigation into Death of Kurdish Refugee Hossein Blujani
WHEN: Tuesday February 12, 2013 at 9:30 am
WHERE: Federal Court, 701 West Georgia, corner Granville
WHO: Iranian Federation of Refugees, Lawyer Peter Edelmann, Kinbrace Housing Society, No One Is Illegal, and others

Monday February 11th, 2013, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories – The Kurdish and Iranian communities as well as refugee advocates will be holding a memorial in remembrance of deceased Kurdish-Iranian refugee Hossein Blujani on Tuesday February 12 at 9:30 am at 701 West Georgia. The body of the 31-year-old was found on December 1, 2012 on the railway tracks near Commercial Drive and Broadway in an apparent suicide. The groups are demanding an investigation into this death and condemning Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) for enforcing racist and inhumane policies.

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Rally Demanding Justice in the Death of Kurdish-Iranian Refugee

Tuesday February 12th
9:30 Am
701 West Georgia Street

With much sadness and rage, we inform our community that we have lost a vibrant, kind and thoughtful Kurdish and Iranian young refugee.

The body of 31-year-old Hossein Blujani was found on December 1, 2012 on the railway tracks near Commercial Drive and Broadway in an apparent suicide. We send our condolences to his surviving family and loved ones. We share in this pain with them so as to lighten their grief.

Hossein was a recognized UNHCR refugee (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) who claimed refugee status in Canada in 2010. The unjust and inhumane Canadian immigration system, however, relentlessly pursued allegations of him being a “security threat” and a member of a “terrorist” organization (an organization he was recruited into as a 15-year old and one which Canada itself has delisted). For years he endured long interrogations and hearings, while living without a work permit (until May 2012), no access to housing or social assistance, and no health care.
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