National Actions for Migrant Workers' Rights
Year End Actions Demand Justice and Status for 1.7 Million People
Toronto, December 16, 2022
Actions were held in several cities from December 16-19 to demand that the Trudeau Liberals honour the pledge made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exactly a year ago to regularize the status of all migrants in Canada, in Toronto and Shediac, New Brunswick on December 16, Vancouver and various locations in Alberta on December 18 and in Montreal on December 19. The actions were organized by the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and their allies.
In Toronto, migrant and undocumented workers and supporters held a rally at the constituency office of Pubic Safety Minister Marco Mendicino under whose watch the Canadian Border Services Agency deports an average of 31 people a day for being "illegal" in Canada.
The Toronto action heard from Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal via phone hook-up from Thunder Bay. He is a former international student from Bangladesh who is facing deportation on January 1 and said, "As a migrant student, I had to take jobs with bad working conditions and I could not speak up because of my status. Without permanent status, I feel like immigrants like me are on a leash, we are disposable workers with an expiry date. I am speaking up for everyone. I want my deportation stopped. My life is here. I have family and friends here. I want the Prime Minister to keep his promise made a year ago to deliver a regularization program without caps and without exclusions. We need status for all."
Another speaker at the Toronto action was Fatumah Najjuma, a Ugandan refugee and a single mother with a Canadian-born daughter who is working as a personal support worker. She is facing deportation because her refugee claim has been denied. She asked why the Canadian government is persecuting her. "Why is the Canadian government trying to separate me from my Canadian daughter, her only living parent? I am here today with the voices of the 60,000 people who signed the petition calling on the government to let me stay here in Canada and for all undocumented people to have permanent residence."
Another
Ugandan migrant worker, Jane, who is also facing deportation spoke
about the injustice of how migrant workers are treated in Canada. She
spoke about migrant and undocumented workers who worked through the
pandemic and contribute to Canada but are denied basic rights to health
care and
other services and live each day under threat of being picked up by the
immigration authorities. She called for Canada to do the right thing and
grant permanent residence to the 1.7 million people in Canada who for
various reasons are without status and deserve to live with dignity.
Following the speeches, a petition with more than 63,000 signatures calling for full and permanent status for all was delivered to Minister Mendicino's office while participants at the rally chanted, "Stop the Deportations, Status for All!" "No one Is Illegal! "and other slogans.
The action ended with a pledge by everyone to keep up the pressure on
the Trudeau government to keep its promise to regularize the status of
1.7 million people. International students, migrant workers, refugees
and undocumented people require full status as a right that belongs to
them as human
beings, so that they can live with dignity, have access to basic social
services and protections, and live with stability and peace of mind
while continuing to contribute to Canada.
Migrant workers deliver letter to constituency office of Dominic
LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and
Communities, Shediac, New Brunswick, December 16, 2022.
Public discussion in Montreal, December 19, 2022.
(Photos: TML, MWAC Canada, M. Jess.)
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 63 - December 21, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520634.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca