As you all know there has been unprecedented raids of non-status workers in Southern Ontario. CBSA is boasting this as one of their largest enforcement operations in Canadian history. Approximately 100 people are still in detention, primarily in the Greater Toronto Area district. Our allies in Toronto have requested urgent national responses to send a clear message that we are outraged and angered – that we will not remain silent as hundreds of non-status and migrant workers are being brutalized -that we will stand now before these raids escalate across the country. Actions have occured in Toronto, Edmonton, with more planned in Montreal and elsewhere.

» click here to continue reading

Apr 8 2009. Rabble.ca

Nearly 200 outraged community and labour activists rattled the fences of Rexdale Immigration Detention Centre on April 5, demanding the release of over 100 undocumented workers arrested during unprecedented immigration raids across southwestern Ontario. Chanting ‘No One Is Illegal! Stop deporting people,’ ‘We didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed us’ and ’Justice for migrant workers,’ teachers, lawyers and organizers from OSSTF D12, Parkdale Legal Community Services, Mujeres Al Frente, the Sikh Activist Network, the Good Jobs Coalition, CUPE, UFCW, CAW, OPSEU and many others joined family members and friends on Sunday morning. Organized by No One is Illegal-Toronto, Migrante Ontario and Justicia for Migrant Workers, the spirited action was in response to three separate but coordinated attacks against undocumented communities.

» click here to continue reading

This is an URGENT NATIONAL ALERT being sent out by our allies in No One Is Illegal Toronto. Approximately 100 (exact figures unconfirmed) migrant and non-status workers have been detained in large-scale workplace enforcement actions in Ontario, primarily in the Greater Toronto Area district. There has been minimal media reporting on these huge-scale operations, a local report on one of the raids in Bradford is available at: http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1508182

» click here to continue reading

by David L. Wilson, November 30 2008

Part of the right wing routinely blames undocumented immigrants for just about everything.  On September 24, nine days after the financial meltdown started in earnest, the National Review Web site carried an article by columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin blaming “illegals” for the crisis and the subsequent bailout of the banks.  “The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers,” she wrote.  “But there’s one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis.”1
» click here to continue reading

Allison Hanes ,  Canwest News Service, Thursday, November 20, 2008

TORONTO – Police Chief Bill Blair convinced the Toronto Police Services Board on Thursday to kill a proposal that would have prohibited his officers from telling federal authorities if they suspected immigration law violations. Toronto Police already have a “don’t ask” policy on immigration status in family abuse cases, and immigrant advocates had hoped to add a ”don’t tell” component. But the police board disbanded the committee studying the issue, burying activists’ hopes, after Blair said officers simply cannot turn a blind eye to potential infractions of immigration and refugee legislation.

» click here to continue reading