May 14, 2009, Vancouver – The anti-racist migrant justice organization No One Is Illegal is outraged at the awarding of “Best MP of the Year” to Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney by Macleans. Based on polling of MP’s, the Third Annual Parliamentarian of the Year was awarded to Conservative Calgary MP Jason Kenney on May 13 in Ottawa. According to Alex Mah of No One Is Illegal, “Minister Kenney is routinely called the Minister of Censorship and Deportation. Kenney was the one who decided that Canada would not participate in the 2009 Durban World Conference Against Racism. His controversial statements and racist attacks on immigrants are hardly worth awarding. In fact, we demand the opposite – Fire Jason Kenney!”

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Please join No One Is Illegal and allies for an open community dialogue and strategizing discussion focusing on: the recent Ontario immigrant worker raids, Minister Jason Kenneys attacks on racialized immigrant communities, the impact on Mexican (im)migrants of the Swine flu, and the world economic crisis and its consequences for migrant workers in Canada.

Wednesday, May 20th from 6 – 8 pm. Family Activity Room, Britannia Community Center. 1661 Napier Street (West side of Commercial Drive)

Download poster here and flyers here

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by Tim McSorley. The Dominion

MONTREAL–A massive police operation in the Toronto area on April 1 caught the attention of major Canadian news outlets.  One hundred and twenty-five people were rounded up in a pre-dawn raid and charged with arms, drugs and organized crime-related violations. The arrests made top headlines across national media and were featured in most large metropolitan dailies. A day later, another police operation in Ontario resulted in the arrest of nearly as many people, but hardly a word was written about it.

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Apr 29, 2009 by macleans.ca

Q: When you’re speaking at citizenship ceremonies, you tell new Canadians our history is now their history, that you don’t want Canada to be viewed as a hotel where people come and go with no abiding commitment to our past, or to citizenship. What is the meaning of our citizenship?

A: Legally speaking it gives people status in Canada and certain rights like voting, but I think we need to reclaim a deeper sense of citizenship, a sense of shared obligations to one another, to our past, as well as to the future. In that I mean a kind of civic nationalism where people understand the institutions, values and symbols that are rooted in our history.

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