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Myth 1:  They are illegals who are jumping the queue.

There is no ‘queue’ for refugee claimants. Refugees are forced from their homes in emergency situations due to human rights abuses committed during wars, military occupations, or persecution against a minority group. We cannot expect refugees to wait for Canada to select them from overseas. We must understand that they undertake long and dangerous journeys to protect their lives and the lives of their families. According to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, to which Canada is a party, there are no penalties on refugees who arrive without pre-authorization and irregularly.

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By Harsha Walia, Special to the Vancouver Sun August 14, 2010

From the Komagata Maru carrying 376 Punjabi passengers and the SS St. Louis travelling with 900 Jewish asylum seekers, to the boats with 600 people from China’s Fujian province and the Ocean Lady that docked in B.C. last year with Tamil refugees – there is something about boatloads of migrants that triggers a national hysteria. Perhaps it is the realization that the expanse of ocean is not enough to enforce the divide between the West and the so-called Third World.

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Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nooneisillegal/4889438952/

Friday August 13, 2010, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories– No One Is Illegal dropped a large banner which read: “Canada Jails Refugees” above Highway 1 in Vancouver/Burnaby this morning during rush-hour traffic.  The banner drop was in response to the ongoing stigmatization and public hysteria around the MV Sun Sea, carrying 490 Tamil asylum seekers to BC. Now that the ship has been boarded by the Navy, Armed Forces, Canadian Border Services Agency, and RCMP, it is expected that these migrants will be incarcerated in prisons within the week.

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By Christina Spencer and Laura Stone; and Judith Lavoie and Katie DeRosa, Postmedia News and Times Colonist August 13, 2010

Canadian authorities boarded a Tamil migrant ship carrying 490 would-be refugees late Thursday night off the coast of British Columbia, after intercepting the vessel in the afternoon and escorting it toward Victoria. HMCS Winnipeg made visual contact with the MV Sun Sea late in the morning, a federal official confirmed. In the afternoon, the vessel entered Canada’s territorial waters, inside the 12-nautical mile limit. The ship is expected to land at CFB Esquimalt, where tents have been set up for their arrival late Thursday night or early this morning.

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By Ryan Elias August 12, 2010, Tyee.ca

The refugee-rights collective No One Is Illegal is decrying the Canadian government’s decision to incarcerate the passengers of the MV Sun Sea when they arrive in B.C. this weekend. Harsha Walia, a spokesperson for No One Is Illegal, said that the decision to jail the 200 to 500 Tamil migrants on their arrival is a poor response by the federal government. “A lot of the response to this boat isn’t really rooted in a legal response, it’s rooted in a deliberately created hysteria, in a prejudgment and a stereotype of them as terrorists,” she said.

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