Victory! Transportation not Deportation Campaign Forces Transit Police to Terminate Agreement with CBSA
Posted by admin on Feb 21st, 2015
“This afternoon, Transit Police informed representatives of the Transportation not Deportation campaign that they will terminate their Memorandum of Understanding with CBSA, that officers must receive permission from a Watch Commander to initiate contact with CBSA, and that they will not detain people without warrants for items that are simply contravention of immigration law,” confirms Omar Chu of Transportation not Deportation.
Since 2007, Transit Police and the Pacific Region Enforcement Center of CBSA have had a Memorandum of Understanding. Transit Police reported three hundred and twenty eight people to Canada Border Services Agency in 2013, one in five of whom faced a subsequent immigration investigation including deportation. Only 1.5% of all those referred to CBSA even had immigration warrants out. From November 2012 to January 2013, Transit police made had more referrals to CBSA than any other BC police force including the VPD and RCMP.
One of these people was Mexican migrant and hotel worker Lucia Vega Jiménez, who later committed suicide while in CBSA custody. At the coroner’s inquest into her death, a Transit Police officer testified that he turned Lucia over to Canada Border Services Agency, in part, because Lucia had an accent and that he believed “she wasn’t originally from Canada.â€
Migrant Justice News
Posted by admin on Feb 16th, 2015
VIDEO: “Guantánamo of the Pacific”: Australian Asylum Seekers Wage Hunger Strike at Offshore Detention Site
A massive hunger strike is underway at what some are calling “the Guantánamo Bay of the Pacific.” TSome have barricaded themselves behind the detention center’s high wire fences; others have resorted to increasingly drastic measures such as drinking washing detergent, swallowing razor blades, and even sewing their mouths shut to protest their confinement.
Watch Democracy Now video here: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/guantanamo_of_the_pacific_australian_asylum
Are you already violating the feds’ new anti-terror bill?
Harper introduced Bill C-51, a sweeping piece of legislation that covers everything from what you’re allowed to say and write to who can board a plane, what happens to your tax information and how long you can be detained without charge.
 http://globalnews.ca/news/1803553/are-you-already-violating-the-feds-new-anti-terror-bill/
My call from a former hunger striker inside the Lindsay Superjail
In recent months I’ve been receiving collect calls from a man who’s being held at the Central East Correctional Centre, also known as the Lindsay Superjail. He’s one of about 200 immigration detainees who began hunger strikes at the jail in September 2013 to protest lengthy detentions and seemingly endless immigration hearings. More than a year later, many of them are still in a maximum-security purgatory that sounds like hell on earth.
https://nowtoronto.com/news/my-call-from-a-former-hunger-striker-inside-the-lindsay-supe/
8th Annual Community March Against Racism
Posted by admin on Jan 29th, 2015
Saturday March 21
Starts at 1 pm at Clark Park (Commercial Drive and 14th)
Unceded xÊ·məθkwÉ™yÌ“É™m, Sḵwx̱wuÌ7mesh, and SÉ™lÌ“iÌlwÉ™taÊ” territories, Vancouver
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/601744243292857/
Poster for sharing on the Internet
Posters for printing:
81/2 by 11
11 by 17
*Family-friendly festivities! Bring your neighbours, banners and drums!
Watch previous videos:
Video from 2013: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUMawBQASFM
Video from 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQii7Z9-yAw
Video from 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKDMpj9x2xU
The International Day for the Elimination of Racism marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting against Apartheid’s passbook laws, killing 67 and wounding 186. Every year we join friends and allies around the world to mark this day and to speak the truth about racism.
Migrant Justice News
Posted by admin on Jan 22nd, 2015
1) Video: Comedian’s take on immigrants stealing jobs in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kvY9bVDi0&feature=youtu.be
2) Video: Migrant baby Alpha born in jail, still there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9pgveUowjw
3) A bad year for Canadian citizenship “The reform has made it possible for citizenship to be withdrawn at the whim of politicians. In the year to come, it will become clear which citizens will be targeted for removal and who will be extended the privilege to belong.”. Read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/01/03/a_bad_year_for_canadian_citizenship.html
4) Border Services ramping up arrests, advocates say “Nearly 600 people in the Pacific region were removed between April and November. Community groups who work with undocumented migrants are reporting an increase in arrests of workers by the Canada Border Services Agency in recent months.” Read more http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Border+Services+ramping+arrests+advocates/10461322/story.html#ixzz3LeqyCzit
