Spirited Hamilton Rally Demands Status for All Without Exception
Hundreds of people rallied at lunch hour outside the Hamilton Convention Centre January 23 demanding that the Trudeau government make good on its promise and implement a regularization program open to all those living in Canada without permanent status. Migrant workers from Hamilton and Toronto were joined by members of the United Steelworkers Local 1005, and other working people, including a contingent from the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.
The rally was held outside the Trudeau cabinet's winter retreat where they were to decide whether to proceed immediately with a regularization program. If all the Ministers didn't support doing so then they were to schedule further meetings, meaning further delays.
Migrant workers pointed out that the cabinet is taking decisions that affect their lives, the lives of all Canadians and demanded that their just stand for Status for All! must be implemented now. Delays mean continued deportations and deaths.
Those addressing the rally spoke with pride of the work they do and have done throughout the pandemic, in building and maintaining Canadian society whether as workers in health care, agriculture, construction or in many other sectors of the economy. They are claiming from this society what is their due -- the right to stay and make their lives here and the conditions they require to make their contribution, from health care and social services, to pursuing their education to being able to re-unite their families. Several of the speakers were workers who, having worked here throughout the pandemic, have now become undocumented and are facing imminent deportation.
Expressing their determination to see the fight for status for all through to success rally participants called on all Canadian workers to join them in defending the rights of all.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 2 - February 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5300219.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca