By Jennifer Saltman, The Province January 28, 2014

Police say the death of a woman who was being held by Canada Border Services Agency last month was not criminal in nature. But civil libertarians remain “extremely troubled” because news of the 42-year-old’s death was not made public for nearly a month. “It just makes no sense and it raises a lot of questions about the degree of transparency and accountability that we are seeing from the Canada Border Services Agency,” said Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

» click here to continue reading

By David P. Ball, 24 hours Vancouver Tuesday, January 28, 2014 6:30:56 PST PM

The sister of a Lucia Vega Jimenez, a Mexican woman who died in Canada Border Services Agency custody Dec. 28, alleged she signed a confidentiality agreement with authorities, according to the priest who visited the unconscious woman before she was taken off life support. Rev. Eduardo Quintero, of Vancouver’s Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, administered last rites to Jimenez in Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, and also confirmed two other sources’ reports the 42-year-old committed suicide in detention. “She was unconscious when I visited her in the hospital,” Quintero told 24 hours. “She was brought to the airport, then at a certain point she hung herself.” According to Quintero, Jimenez’s sister Martha told him of an alleged non-disclosure agreement with authorities, but gave few details. He reported Jimenez was a hotel worker initially arrested over an unpaid bus fare, before she was taken into CBSA custody at the airport.

» click here to continue reading

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail. Published Tuesday, Jan. 28 2014, 11:13 AM EST

Civil liberties activists are demanding answers in the in-custody death of a Mexican woman who was held by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) in Vancouver. The 42-year-old woman was taken into custody in early December and transferred from a provincial correctional facility to a holding cell at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 19, according to Barb McLintock with the BC Coroners Service. Around 6 a.m. the next morning, “things started to go wrong” and the woman was taken to Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where she died on Dec. 28, Ms. McLintock said.

» click here to continue reading

By David P. Ball, 24 hours Vancouver. Monday, January 27, 2014 6:56:59 PST PM

The B.C. Coroners service has confirmed the death of a Mexican national who was being held by Canada Border Services Agency on Dec. 28 Lucia Vega Jimenez, 42, died in Vancouver’s Mount St. Joseph’s Hospital. The cause of her death hasn’t been revealed because it is an “open case under active investigation,” Coroner spokeswoman Barb McLintock told 24 hours. “She had been taken to hospital in the early morning hours of Dec. 20, 2013, from the Canada Border Services Agency holding cells at Vancouver International Airport.”

» click here to continue reading

As many of you have probably already heard, Canadian Border Service Agency officers conducted raids at number of construction work sites yesterday, including one raid which was filmed for a border security reality TV show. In a show of solidarity and rage, approximately 80 members of the community, including families of those detained as well as activists and community organizers, attended an emergency rally today.

Diana, a family member of one of the workers picked up in the immigration enforcement raid states, “I feel frustrated and sad and angry and hurt. I don’t know when I will see him. As a First Nations woman, I have a right to choose my partner and my life and how I want to live. He was working, supporting his family back home and my family here. Who is this government to say who can stay?”

Angela Joseph, another family member, said of her husband, “He is a great person and a great father and spouse and I’m here to help him any way I can. I think that the immigration services needs to be more lenient on families to keep them together, especially when they have small children?”

» click here to continue reading