Toronto, Kitchener, London, Vancouver, May 24, 2012 — Coordinated by Migrant Workers Alliance of Change, simultaneous actions outside MP offices took place in 4 cities today, with migrant workers, community members and trade unionists demanding the Conservative government reverse a policy that would permit employers to pay migrant workers 15% less. This discriminatory policy is an attack on migrant workers and on all working people. Actions will continue next week in Calgary and Edmonton, as momentum builds against the wage cut.

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The Law Union of Ontario (“The Law Union”) is dismayed by recent attacks by the Conservative Government’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, aimed at the grassroots migrant rights group No One Is Illegal. No One Is Illegal has a proven track record of working alongside migrant communities and individuals on issues relating to human rights and broader social justice. From working to ensure undocumented people living in Canada have access to women’s shelters, food banks, and health care, to organizing campaigns against discriminatory immigration laws and continued resource theft from Indigenous communities and the agenda of increased profits on the backs of people’s welfare as exhibited by the G8-G20 governments, No One Is Illegal is an important and crucial voice of dissent.

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Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, will result in the arbitrary detention, intimidation, failure to protect, and ultimate re-victimization of highly vulnerable people who seek asylum in Canada, especially the most vulnerable among them, women and children. If the changes proposed under Bill C-31 are passed into law, a significant number of women will never have their own risk of persecution or hardship assessed, prior to being deported from Canada. The Barbra Schlifer Clinic, METRAC, and LEAF, three organizations dedicated to women’s equality and to ending violence against women, presented their concerns about the Bill in a written Submission to the Commons Committee on Bill C-31, which concluded hearings this week.

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Xtra. Nathaniel Christopher / Vancouver / Monday, June 04, 2012

Refugees’ rights advocates say a law proposed by the Harper government will increase the likelihood that gay asylum seekers will be rejected, deported or imprisoned. “C-31 is designed to make Canada quite an unattractive option for people seeking protection. And it certainly will make it very difficult for anyone, whether or not they have good grounds for protection, to have their claim fully and thoroughly assessed,” says Lesley Stalker, a former legal officer for the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, who addressed a May 30 forum on the bill in Vancouver.

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Spotted “Conservative Party of Canada is Anti-Immigrant” posters in the neighbourhood of South Vancouver including on Tory MP Wai Young’s office and displayed in neighbourhood stores.

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

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