MEDIA RELEASE April 6, 2006Stop the Deportations: Immigrant Groups Protest Mass Deportations of Non-Status PeopleImmigrants and supporters will protest at 12:30 pm Thursday April 6 at Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), 333 Dunsmuir, to condemn the collective roundups and mass deportations of the Portuguese, Latin American, and Caribbean communities in Toronto in the past two weeks.

“The media reports said that no one is asking for a blanket amnesty,” said Alex Mah, an organizer with No One Is Illegal-Vancouver (NOII). “We want to be clear that we are in fact demanding regularization of all non-status people in Canada.”

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— More than two years after being brutalized by police in Ottawa, non-status migrants and supporters are acquitted in occupation of Immigration Minister’s Office

OTTAWA, February 24, 2006 – Today, 12 protesters involved with the Action Committee of Non-Status Algerians and No One is Illegal were acquitted of mischief in relation to the occupation of the Immigration Minister’s offices in downtown Ottawa on May 29, 2003, more than two-and-a-half years
ago.

Two defendants – Mohamed Cherfi and Djamel Meziani –could not be present, because they were deported before trial. Mohamed Cherfi, the public spokesperson for the CASS, was forced to take sanctuary inside the St-Pierre Church in Quebec City in February 2004, in order to prevent a deportation order. However, his sanctuary was forcibly violated by police on March 5, 2004, and he was immediately removed to the United States. He spent more than one year in prison before being accepted as a refugee by the United States (a status he and hundred of others were denied by the Canadian government).

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TORONTO COMMUNITY ACTIVIST WENDY MAXWELL SET TO BE DEPORTED MONDAY. JOIN NOII-VAN TO BRING THE MESSAGE TO CIC VANCOUVER.

Friday March 11 12 Noon. CIC-Vancouver (300 West Georgia)

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On Saturday March 5th at the International Women’s Day rally in Toronto, a woman was arrested by Toronto Police while selling cookies to raise money for CKLN Community Radio. Her crime: living in Canada with out Immigration status. Wendy Maxwell, also known as Nzinga, is now in jail and on hunger strike at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ontario. Her deportation date to Costa Rica has been set for this coming Monday, March 14th at 2pm.

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Montreal Mirror, 17 July 2003
Craig Segal

Massaouda Kellou is the matriarch of the Algerian refugee movement. Shy of media attention, the 38-year-old mother of three works behind the scenes. She goes to every meeting. She rents vans and drives Algerians facing deportation and their supporters to rallies in Montreal and Ottawa. She comes across as the movement’s strong and silent brick-and-mortar foundation.

Yet she breaks down when she tells her story, in the smoking section of a barbecue chicken restaurant in Ottawa last Friday, July 11.

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On May 29th 2003, 10 non-status Algerians and 2 supporters were brutally arrested in then-Immigration Minister Denis Coderre’s Ottawa office. They were charged with “mischief over $5,000”. Their trial began in Ottawa in June 2004 and will continue from February 21-March 9 and March 21-23, 2005. The stakes are high for those defendants who are still not regularized and risk being deported. They are calling for your support and solidarity.

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