Today, on Refugee Rights Day, Refugee rights activists are occupying Conservative MP offices, Immigration and Canadian Border Services Agency offices, and dropping banners in SEVEN cities

UPDATES:

1) NOII Announcement linked here:
http://www.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/10436

2) PHOTOS from the actions are linked here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nooneisillegal/

3) Live updates and pictures are being streamed through
https://www.twitter.com/NoOneIsIllegal
Please visit and share; you do not need a twitter account to access these.

4) Press release linked here: https://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=4789

TODAY IS REFUGEE RIGHTS DAY: In a coordinated effort on Refugee Rights Day, members of refugee and immigrant rights groups including No One Is Illegal are occupying Immigration/Canadian Border Services Agency offices in Vancouver Coast Salish Territories. We received lots of support from refugees who were in the offices at the same time, many with pending deportation orders, many unaware of the horrific impacts of the proposed Bill C31. Conservative MP offices are being occupied in Ottawa, Toronto, St. Catharines and Edmonton. Banners have also been dropped in Montreal and Halifax and Vancouver Coast Salish Territories. These actions are being organized to demand that the Refugee Exclusion Act, Bill C-31, be
discarded.

» click here to continue reading

by Sandra Cuffe, Vancouver Media Co-op

Chants against Bill C-31 rang out in Spanish at the intersection of West Georgia and Hamilton on Wednesday afternoon, when dozens of people gathered in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board office to protest the proposed reforms to Canada’s refugee determination system. The rally was organized by the Movement to Protect the Human Rights of Refugees and Immigrants, a nascent coalition spearheaded by individuals and groups from various Latin American communities in Vancouver. With a position of total opposition to Bill C-31, also known as the ‘Refugee Exclusion Act’ and the ‘Anti-Smuggling Bill,’ the group coalesced after two well-attended community meetings and decided to call the rally.

» click here to continue reading

FOR IMMEDIATE NATIONAL RELEASE
APRIL 4, REFUGEE RIGHTS DAY

www.twitter.com/nooneisillegal
www.nooneisillegal.org
www.facebook.com/NoOneIsIllegalNetwork
#RefugeeExclusion #noBillC31

BREAKING NEWS: Refugee and immigrant rights activists occupying Conservative MP offices, others actions in SEVEN cities across Canada on Refugee Rights Day, today April 4th.

Canada – In a coordinated effort, members of refugee and immigrant rights groups including No One Is Illegal are occupying Conservative MP offices in Ottawa, Toronto, St. Catharines, Edmonton, and Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. Banners have also been dropped in Montreal and Halifax. These actions coincide with April 4, Refugee Rights Day, and are being organized to demand that the Refugee Exclusion Act, Bill C-31, be discarded.

Live updates and pictures are being streamed through https://www.twitter.com/NoOneIsIllegal

» click here to continue reading

*** April 4 is Refugee Rights Day – YOU can get involved ***

Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney has tabled Bill C-31, an omnibus Refugee Exclusion Act. It creates a two-tier system of refugee protection that mandates nationality-based discrimination, mandates incarceration for many asylum seekers, denies and revokes permanent residency for many who have already been granted refugee status, and violently targets and expels refugees and migrants from Canada. This Act also introduces intrusive biometrics data collection on all migrants and gives increased powers of arrest and detention to border guards. This racist and repressive new bill is a major roll-back on an already minimalist and exclusionary refugee system.

Learn more – Joint NOII Statement – Axe the Refugee Exclusion Act:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/no-one-illegal/2012/03/noii-alert-axe-refugee-exclusion-act

TAKE ACTION:

1) April 4th is Refugee Rights Day. We encourage you to post on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites about the Refugee Exclusion Act and migrant justice issues. The mainstream media and even many of us have been silent or unaware about this recent attack on refugee rights, so raising awareness is a critical first step. Tag and post to Jason Kenney, your MP and news channels. Share any and all of the links listed below (scroll down).

» click here to continue reading

National Release
March 27, 2012

www.nooneisillegal.org
www.facebook.com/NoOneIsIllegalNetwork
www.twitter.com/NoOneIsIllegal

“Conservative Party using No One Is Illegal to distract from anti-migrant record, Refugee Exclusion Act Bill C-31”

Canada, Turtle Island — Immigrant and refugee rights groups from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were brought up in Parliament yesterday [1] and targeted in a press release by Minister of Deportation Jason Kenney [2]. The Tories have charged that No One Is Illegal is “not simply another noisy activist group but hard-line anti-Canadian extremists”.

However as Sozan Savehilaghi from No One Is Illegal – Vancouver Coast Salish Territories notes, “It seems as if everyone who is a dissident and stands up for equality and social and environmental justice is an extremist in Harper’s corporate Canada”, referring to Tory government recently targeting Indigenous communities and environmentalists against Enbridge pipeline also as “extremist”‘.

» click here to continue reading