Vigil and Press Briefing
A vigil and press briefing took place in Montreal on September 22 outside federal government offices at Complex Guy-Favreau. The action saw some 50 people come together in support of Mamadou Konaté, an asylum seeker from Côte d'Ivoire who is facing a removal order from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) dated September 30. Mamadou has been living in Quebec since 2016, where he fled after being warned that if he remained in his home country, his life was in danger.
Since arriving in Quebec, Mamadou has had his work permit renewed numerous times and during the first waves of the pandemic, was employed as an essential worker in long-term care centres cleaning the rooms of vulnerable seniors who had contracted COVID-19. At that time, he also contracted the virus, but was unable to avail himself of health care because of his precarious status. Mamadou was also employed in warehouses, felled trees for Hydro-Québec and is presently a maintenance worker at Concordia University.
Interventions at the action were made by the Mamadou Support Collective; Mamadou Konaté, his lawyer Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, Quebec's Member of the National Assembly for Laurier-Dorion Andrés Fontecilla, Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone spokesperson Marisa Berry Méndez, Carole Bénédicte Ze for Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), Noémie Beauvais from the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC), and Frantz André from the Action Committee on Non-Status Persons (CAPSS).
A press communiqué issued for the occasion was read out by Amelia Oreliana of the Mamadou Support Collective, which noted that despite "all of the mobilizing, despite all of Mamadou's efforts to expose the injustice of his situation," the CBSA has decided that he "will be deported on September 30. Mamadou's story has been recounted in the media endless times over the past several years, particularly the role he played in long-term care homes during the first wave of the pandemic."
Over the past few weeks Mamadou's lawyer requested that the CBSA postpone his deportation date, however this was rejected on September 20. Cliche-Rivard had also filed an updated pre-removal risk assessment application (the last assessment dates back to 2018), as well as a new application for a temporary resident permit. His next step is an emergency application to the Federal Court for a stay of deportation, to buy time for a response on the new applications, as well as to Mamadou's request for a ministerial exemption, filed over a year and a half ago, so that his strong humanitarian case is considered.
Mamadou is being denied admissibility based on the controversial Section 34 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (introduced by the Jean Chrétien Liberal government just weeks after 9/11), under the heading "Security." That section, the press release notes, "stipulates that anyone who has participated, directly or indirectly, in an attempt to overthrow a government will simply not be considered for their applications for status in Canada." The communiqué further informs that over the years, this section "has been questioned many times; notably because it entirely fails to take into account geopolitical contexts. While people like Mamadou are denied status because they have had the misfortune to live in countries torn apart by armed conflicts, the politicians directly involved in these conflicts have been welcomed into Canada, arms wide open. Mamadou is not complicit in any crime, here or in his country; why has the door been closed in his face once again?"
The press release concludes: "Mamadou's story continues to outrage the people of Quebec and it is high time that his status be regularized, like that of thousands of people living in similar situations. It is our responsibility as people living in Canada not to let this kind of injustice pass, especially since the federal government is in the process of developing a regularization program for undocumented people in Canada." "Status for all NOW!"
Participants at the September 22 action were informed that another action in support of Mamadou, this time in Rimouski, a four-hour drive from Montreal, had been organized the same day.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 19 - September 28, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520192.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca