IMMIGRATION CHANGES:

It’s official – second class citizenship goes into effect

Last Friday, part of Bill C-24 went into effect, officially creating a two-tier citizenship system. As a result of this new law, dual citizens and people who have immigrated to Canada can have their citizenship taken away while other Canadians cannot. The government’s press release last week tried to justify this discriminatory law by raising the threat of “jihadi terrorism,” but Bill C-24 could easily be used against non-terrorists—for example, a journalist who is convicted of a “terrorism offence” in another country for reporting on human rights violations by the government.

Read more: https://bccla.org/2015/06/its-official-second-class-citizenship-goes-into-effect/

Hundreds make final bids to stay in Canada after deportation hold lifted

Mr. Lafleur is one of 3,500 people in Canada – 3,200 Haitians and 300 Zimbabweans – who were affected when the federal government lifted a hold on deportations to their home countries in December, deeming the situation in Haiti and Zimbabwe to be stable. Those without status were given six months to apply for residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hundreds-make-final-bids-to-stay-in-canada-after-deportation-hold-lifted/article24728764/

New Tory legislation will force deportation of foreign criminals and strip them of refugee protection

The government’s plans is to change several acts to make it easier and faster to remove non-Canadian criminals out of Canada, including some who have already been accorded refugee protection and permanent residency status, he said.

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/new-tory-legislation-will-force-deportation-of-foreign-criminals-and-strip-them-of-refugee-protection

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SK Hussan

http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/blog/hussansk/33683

A week ago, Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan, a 39 year old Somali man died in immigration detention custody after being denied adequate medical care, and then being ‘restrained’ by border and prison officials. Hassan, as he was known to his friends, came to Canada from Mogadishu in 1993 as a teenager. He was granted refugee status, but according to family members, didn’t gain permanent resident status because of his mental illness.

“He was moved from school to school. No one knew how to deal with him. He finally dropped out and we kept him at home,”  Deina Ibrahim told the Toronto Star. “Being bipolar, he had his good days and bad days. On a bad day, he got agitated and people would call police on him. He was just in and out of hospital a lot.”

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https://nacla.org/blog/2015/04/23/how-human-rights-organizations-are-implicated-migrant-deaths

by Joseph Nevins

The deaths of unauthorized migrants have long scarred the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. But as evidenced by a single incident on Sunday, April 19, the Mediterranean is the global epicenter of such fatalities.

An estimated 850 migrants—from a variety of countries, including Eritrea, Syria, Sierra Leone, and Bangladesh— perished when their less-than-seaworthy vessel capsized in the waters between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to one report, “authorities described a grisly scene of bodies floating and sinking in the warm waters, with the majority of the dead apparently trapped in the ship at the bottom of the sea.”

In response, Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, borrowed a page from the talking points of U.S. authorities by pointing the finger at migrant smugglers. Using words that obscure how the growing strength of the European Union’s border policing apparatus—what many call “Fortress Europe”—effectively requires migrants to rely on professional smugglers and take ever-riskier routes to reach their hoped-for destinations, Renzi called smugglers “the slave drivers of the 21st century.”

It is hardly surprising that officials charged with policing national territorial boundaries do not indict the very system that kills migrants: the nation-state and its associated apparatus of exclusion for those deemed undesirable or unworthy. In the case of international human rights organizations, however, one can and should expect much better. Instead, one gets (at best) handwringing and calls for governments to make greater efforts to rescue endangered migrants. Meanwhile, these same organizations uphold and legitimize the very practices that make migrant fatalities inevitable, and thus help reproduce them.

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Tuesday April 28th from 6-8 pm.
Vancouver Public Library – Central Location (350 West Georgia Street)

FB RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/899719583412239/

Territorial Welcome by Audrey Siegl (ancestral name sχɬemtəna:t) from Musqueam nation.

Followed by Fantastic Speakers

• Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of Union of BC Indian Chiefs
• Reilly Yeo: co-creator of Groundswell Grassroots Economic Alternatives and a specialist at OpenMedia.
• Arielle dela Cruz Yip: Philippine Women Centre of BC
• Paul Finch: BC Government and Service Employees Union Treasurer
• Adrienne Montani: Provincial Coordinator of First Call BC
• and COMEDY by Sean Devlin of Shit Harper Did

* Why Unite Against Austerity *

All around the world – from Quebec to Greece to Chile to South Africa – tens of thousands of people are rising up against austerity.

Governments and the mainstream media say there is not enough money, and belts must be tightened. Cuts to social spending and wages ensue, while fossil fuel companies and other corporations receive subsidies. Unions are attacked. Indigenous nations are denied inherent land rights and resources from their lands are extracted. Environmental regulations are reduced. Migrant workers are forced into even more precarious working conditions. Vital public services including education, childcare, housing, women’s centers and healthcare are cut, but the prisons and military are expanding. And all of this is justified by a prevailing atmosphere of scarcity and fear.
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Unist’ot’en Camp and Skwomesh Action in a talk about Indigenous struggles against fracking. Also featuring poetry by Crystal Smith de Molina; Tsimshian & Haisla.