By: Sozan Savehilaghi April 30, 2012 · 4:42 pm Downtown East Newspaper

The current Conservative Government is well known for policies that devastate poor communities, immigrants, women, and aboriginal people. One of their latest, Bill C-31, which is called the Refugee Exclusion Act by migrant justice activists, will have a horrifying impact on refugees who seek asylum and safety in Canada. Grassroots organizations such as No One Is Illegal in Vancouver Coast Salish Territories, as well as Non-Government organizations such as Amnesty International, Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, have come out in denunciation of this bill. Bill C-31 is condemned internationally and is against Canada’s own Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It defies the UN Convention on the Rights of Refugees which Canada has signed on to.

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Toronto Star. Published On Thu Apr 26 2012. Ritika Goel, Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay, Joshua Wales and Mei-ling Wiedmeyer

This winter, Jason Kenney introduced Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, in Parliament. We have been watching the debate around this bill with some concern. It seems that Kenney believes the system needs protection from migrants. We, on the other hand, believe migrants, particularly refugees, need protection from his bill. We are a group of primary care physicians who support our patients, many of whom are refugees, to live proactively healthy lives. This approach is good medical practice, and yes, it even reduces health-care costs. We also recognize that people’s health status is dependent on their social and political realities. We therefore advocate for policies that support healthy living and condemn those that cause harm. And thus, our contention with the bill.

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AJE Fault Lines investigates the business of immigrant detention in the US.

Immigration is a key issue in the US presidential election, with the Republican candidates trying to demonstrate their tough stance on undocumented immigrants. But under the Obama administration, the detention and deportation of immigrants has reached an all-time high. Every day, the US government detains more than 33,000 non-citizens at the cost of $5.5mn a day. That is a lot of money for the powerful private prison industry, which spends millions of dollars on lobbying and now operates nearly half of the country’s immigration detention centres. Fault Lines travels to Texas and Florida to investigate the business of immigrant detention in the US and to find out how a handful of companies have managed to shape US immigration laws.

Vancouver Observer, David P. Ball Posted: Apr 9th, 2012

Surrey resident Karla Berenice García Ramírez – an award-winning Mexican journalist facing deportation after Canada rejected her family’s refugee appeal – has won her years-long battle for asylum here, the Vancouver Observer has learned. The whistleblower on government corruption, who fled Mexico after she and her family received numerous death threats because of her reporting, was granted permanent residence last week on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. “I can’t believe it yet!” Ramírez told the Vancouver Observer in an exclusive interview. “I’ve been fighting for this for over four years. I feel cansancio – tiredness.

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MEXICAN WHISTLE-BLOWER KARLA LOTTINI WINS FIGHT TO STAY IN CANADA

We are thrilled to share the news that award-winning Mexican journalist and whistleblower Karla Berenice García Ramírez, who writes under the penname Karla Lottini, has won her and her family’s fight to remain in Canada!

Karla and her family received a positive decision on their Humanitarian and Compassionate application shortly after a public campaign developed to support the family. Over fifty support letters were filed in the past two months from dozens of local and international organizations as well as information about how news stories covering her case locally were being picked up by the Mexican media, and hence increasing her risk if deported.

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