CHRISTOPHER MAUGHAN. The Gazette. Monday, July 07, 2008

Abdelkader Belaouni lives in profound isolation. As a blind refugee in sanctuary at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church, he can never leave his makeshift home. He worries that if he does, he’ll be deported to his native Algeria, where he fears for his life after standing up to rebel soldiers there in 1996. The federal government has twice ruled against letting him stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds, so Belaouni has been living inside a church rectory in Point St. Charles for the past 917 days. “This is torture,” Belaouni says of his situation. “It’s psychological torture, a torture of my mind.”

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Finding sanctuary in hip-hop by Stefan Christoff. The Hour, May 1 2008

==> For more info, visit www.soutienpourkader.net, and to view a performance from rap artist 23 featuring the voice of Abdelkader Belaouni, go to: youtube.com/watch?v=EGtC36LfLSk.

Abdelkader Belaouni, an Algerian refugee living in sanctuary for more than two years at St-Gabriel’s Church in Pointe St-Charles, is launching a hip-hop album. After a winter-long collaboration with the Muslim-American rapper 23 (Tu-Three) – who recently transplanted to Montreal – the duo has produced a unique rap album, born within the walls of sanctuary and from a desire to fight for a more just refugee determination process in Canada.

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Sunday, February 17, 2008 | 8:54 PM NT. CBC News

A Latvian man who has been living in sanctuary in a St. John’s church for almost three years is getting another chance to become a Canadian citizen. Alexi Kolosov entered sanctuary at West End Baptist Church in April 2005, while facing deportation as an illegal immigrant. Alexi Kolosov has been living in the West End Baptist Church in St. John’s since April 2005.  A Federal Court judge has ordered that a new review be done of Kolosov’s case, in part because the previous review did not take into account the ties that Kolosov — who has four Canadian-born grandchildren — already has in the country.

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Pakistani family walks out of church after 18 months of sanctuary
Steve Lambert, THE CANADIAN PRESS . Published Friday February 29th, 2008

WINNIPEG – A Pakistani family who lived in a church for 18 months to avoid deportation took a short drive this week and came back with their freedom. Hassan Raza, his wife and their six children spent most of the last 1 1/2 years holed up in the Crescent Fort Rouge United Church in Winnipeg, afraid of being arrested and deported if they ventured outside.  But the family has been granted temporary resident status after negotiating a deal with federal immigration officials that required them to make a one-hour drive to the U.S. border where, technically at least, they left Canada for a brief time and then re-entered.

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*THE NEW SANCTUARY MOVEMENT AND MIGRANT JUSTICE *

Sunday, February 10, 2008. Door 4:15 pm, event starts at 4:30 pm sharp! SFU Harbor Center, 515 West Hastings. Wheelchair accesible, childcare provided.

WITH ELVIRA ARELLANO from Mexico!

Elvira Arellano is a Mexican citizen and sanctuary-deportee whose plight in the US has galvanized the New Sanctuary Movement and personified the oppression suffered by undocumented people. Originally entering the US in 1997, she was apprehended then and deported back to Mexico. She returned and gave birth to a son in 1999, Saul Arellano. From 2000 to 2002, Arellano worked as a cleaning woman at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, but was arrested and convicted of using a false social security card following a post-September 11 security sweep.

On August 15, 2006 – the day she was supposed to appear before immigration authorities – Arellano took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago. Over the year, she become a spokesperson for the New Sanctuary Movement, as well as president of La Familia Latina Unida, and a symbol of resistance against the systemic violence, exploitation, and racism in the US immigration system. On August 19, 2007, having traveled to California on a speaking tour where she advocated the right of immigrant families to stay united, the single mother was arrested by US authorities and deported to Mexico, without her son. Arellano’s deportation was clearly meant as a blow to the resurgent immigrants rights movement, yet the movement continues as strong as ever.

Join us for a ONE-TIME OPPORTUNITY to hear from Elvira, who has flown in from Mexico to meet the US-caravan Marcha Migrante at the US-Canada border on Feb 12th. For more information email noii-van at resist.ca or call 778-862-8895 or 604-710-5480. www.nooneisillegal.org

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