Approximately 40-50 people gathered in response to an emergency call to protest Bill C50. Despite pouring rain, the spirit of the march was lively, and the group blocked traffic on some of the busiest streets downtown during rush hour. Thousands of leaflets were distributed about the racist Bill C50 and two Citizenship and Immigration offices were stickered with messages opposed to Bill C50.

Last week, MP Offices in Vancouver were targeted with “Scrap Bill C50” Message:
http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/en/2008/05/7577.shtml

The action was organized by No One is Illegal-Vancouver and endorsed by Canadian Arab Federation, Vancouver Catholic Worker, Canadian Muslim Union, Siraat Collective, Salaam Vancouver, Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence, SFU Interfaith Summer Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements, Al-Awda Vancouver, Neworld Theatre, Indigenous Action Movement, Battered Women Support Services, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, Bolivia Solidarity Committee, Industrial Workers of the World, Justice for Migrant Workers, Christian Radicals, La Surda Latin American Collective, Filipino Nurses Support Group, Philippine Women Centre of B.C, SIKLAB-B.C, Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-B.C, Grassroots Women, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy. 

Advocates protest changes to immigration policy
By Kate Webb  The Province  Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Advocates for immigrants and migrant workers will rally at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday to demand the scrapping of a federal bill overhauling Canada’s immigration application process.

Under the new legislation, the immigration minister would have the authority to limit the number of immigration applications Canada accepts, deny admission to applicants already approved by immigration officers and block the entry of would-be immigrants “by category or otherwise.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada would no longer be required to process all new skilled-worker applications, and would be free to select applications for processing based on the skills of the applicant.

The government says the measures have been designed to clear out some of the backlog of 900,000 unprocessed immigration applications.

Vancouver community group No One Is Illegal called the proposed changes “anti-democratic” and “anti-immigrant,” believing the government wants the power to select immigrants on the basis of wealth and willingness to do “temporary . . . exploitative jobs.”

Members of No One Is Illegal, Justice for Migrant Workers and the Chinese Canadian National Council were to participate in the rally.

kwebb@png.canwest.com