Community March Against Racism
Saturday March 23
Starts at 2 pm at Clark Park (Commercial Drive and 14th)
Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/470528346341308/?fref=ts

Family-friendly festivities! Bring your neighbours, banners and drums!

WATCH VIDEOS FROM LAST YEAR:

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.

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Rally Demanding Justice in the Death of Kurdish-Iranian Refugee

Tuesday February 12th
9:30 Am
701 West Georgia Street

With much sadness and rage, we inform our community that we have lost a vibrant, kind and thoughtful Kurdish and Iranian young refugee.

The body of 31-year-old Hossein Blujani was found on December 1, 2012 on the railway tracks near Commercial Drive and Broadway in an apparent suicide. We send our condolences to his surviving family and loved ones. We share in this pain with them so as to lighten their grief.

Hossein was a recognized UNHCR refugee (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) who claimed refugee status in Canada in 2010. The unjust and inhumane Canadian immigration system, however, relentlessly pursued allegations of him being a “security threat” and a member of a “terrorist” organization (an organization he was recruited into as a 15-year old and one which Canada itself has delisted). For years he endured long interrogations and hearings, while living without a work permit (until May 2012), no access to housing or social assistance, and no health care.
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We are thankful for being on the unceded Algonquin territory that this launch is taking place on, and for the inspiration that Idle No More and Indigenous communities provide us.

We honour all the Original peoples of Turtle Land and we honour the diverse lands of the Original peoples of Turtle Island on which we individually reside. We recognize the legacy of all Indigenous teachings across this continent and the world. We are committed to working in solidarity as allies with the Indigenous caucus and with the Original peoples of Turtle Island – in words and in actions – again colonization. We are committed to supporting the needs of your nations.

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South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) invites you to a talk with

Dr. Deepa Kumar
Associate Professor of media studies and Middle East Studies, Rutgers University

Author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike and Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire

Mar. 2 – 7:00 – 9:00pm
Rm. 1700
SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

The recent murder of an Indian settled in New York by pushing him in front of a subway train and the shooting of Sikhs in the Oak Creek Gurdwara in Wisconsin are not isolated incidents. Deepa Kumar places such incidents within the matrix of US policy and institutions.

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Migrant worker programs are the only avenues left for many migrants and pathways to residency are getting cut. Calling for abolition of temporary worker programs without addressing the systemic shifts in canadian immigration policy is a de facto call to end immigration. Instead, call for full legal status and basic labor rights for migrant workers upon arrival.

We must denounce by any means necessary the institutions, corporations and governments that allow the exploitation of ALL people to take place, especially those who do not have ‘status’, those who are poor, and those who are of colour.
While the government insists that migrant workers are treated fairly, migrant workers have documented experiences of isolation, discrimination, fear, exploitation, and limited access to social services. The typical migrant worker experience includes earning less than minimum wage, dangerous working conditions, and working 10-12 hours per day- often seven days a week- without overtime pay, basic employment standards, or the right to unionize. Most importantly, their temporary status makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, as any assertion of their rights leads not only to contract termination but also deportation. Therefore, access to citizenship is a tool of the labour market that fuels multi-million dollar industries.
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