International Migrants Day Actions Across Canada

Migrant Workers Demand Their Rights Be Respected by Canada

The International Migrants Alliance--Canada, together with the Migrant Rights Network and others, organized actions across Canada on December 18, International Migrants Day, demanding that Canada respect the rights of migrant workers. Actions took place in Saguenay-Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Quebec City and Montreal, as well as in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

Canada's racist immigration policies were vigorously opposed, as were the recent changes to reduce the number of immigrants and international students, temporary foreign workers and refugees that Canada will accept. Participants in the actions demanded the reversal of these unjust government policies. They also demanded the recognition and guarantee of the rights of migrants to safe working conditions, wages that enable them and their families to live, and social programs such as childcare, health care, and social supports.

The recent announcement that Canada will spend $1.3 billion to boost border security was also denounced. Immigrants, refugees and international students do not make society less secure, in fact the opposite is true, but this campaign aims to criminalize migrants and asylum seekers to appease incoming U.S. President Donald Trump and further integrate Canada into the U.S. war economy and "security" apparatus.

Speakers at the events also pointed out that Canada, in lockstep with the U.S. imperialists, engages in acts of aggression and war that drive people from their homes, creating the refugee crisis, but takes no responsibility for the consequences of its acts. Instead the Canadian government is attacking those who come to Canada seeking refuge, safety and security.

The plight of international students was also highlighted at the actions. International students spoke out about being enticed to come to Canada with a promise of permanent residency. Based on this promise, their families made great sacrifices to send them to Canada where they face a different and brutal reality. Speakers noted that international students contribute more than $31 billion dollars to the Canadian economy annually and perform many of the jobs that enable the economy to function. Recent changes to the rules governing international students will mean that the work permits of hundreds of thousands now in Canada will expire by the end of 2025 and they will face deportation. Speakers denounced these brutal and arbitrary changes and government and media statements which openly blame international students and migrant workers for the crises in housing, education and health care. This is disinformation to cover up the fact that these crises are the result of decades of anti-social wrecking of social programs by governments themselves which serve narrow private interests.

The actions affirmed that migrant workers, part of the Canadian working class, are standing up for their rights as human beings and demanding that the Canadian state uphold their rights.

Actions in Montreal

Two actions were held in Montreal on December 18. The first was a militant press conference outside federal government immigration offices at Complexe Guy-Favreau, organized by the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC-CTI). The action highlighted the enormous contributions migrant workers, international students, refugees, refugee claimants and undocumented workers make to Canadian society and demanded that governments and the monopoly media end their vicious attacks on the most vulnerable sections of the people.

One of the speakers was Denis Bolduc, Secretary-General of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ). He condemned the closed work permits most migrant workers are forced to work under. Equating them with a form of modern slavery, he declared, "There can't be two classes of workers in Quebec."[1] Adding insult to injury, the FTQ reported that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government announced on International Migrants Day that it is suspending acceptance of applications under its Program for Refugees Abroad (Collective Sponsorship) until June 30, 2025, through a Ministerial Order.

Denis Bolduc, Secretary-General of the Quebec Federation of Labour; Claire Launay, President of Quebec Is Us Too (LQCNA)

The press conference was also addressed by Claire Launay, President of the advocacy group Quebec Is Us Too (LQCNA), who pointed out "There's been an accumulation of anti-immigration measures by both the Quebec and federal governments" and that her organization is "trying to raise awareness of the assault we've been under." She added that "This last year and a half has been especially hard" for immigrants, accusing governments of using them "as a scapegoat for their own policy shortcomings," whether in housing, health care or education.[2]

Other organizations represented at the press conference included Migrante Quebec, the Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers (RHFW),[3] Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone,[4] and the Roundtable of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI).[5]

Following the press conference, participants marched to the Quebec government immigration offices on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, where they listened to a number of testimonials. Sergio, a migrant worker from Brazil noted: "We often hear anti-immigrant discourse in the media aimed at dividing and blaming us for all the problems. In 2022, I remember one of the politicians saying that 80 per cent of immigrants don't work." Sergio said, "Look around you. All you see here -- the streets, schools, hospitals, buildings and even the MIFI [Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration] offices -- these were all built with immigrant workers. We are part of this society. We're here in the schools, hospitals, on worksites, in commerce. Without us, this society would shut down."[6]

At 4:00 pm on the same day, various representatives of organizations working in defence of migrants, took their turn at the mic at the Metro Parc-Ex. Maxime Thibault-Leblanc from Assistance Networks for Migrant Agricultural Workers in Quebec (RATTMAQ) informed that it was 50 years ago, in 1974, that Canada first signed an agreement with Mexico to have Mexicans work in Quebec's agricultural sector.[7] The agreement has seen workers in Quebec and Canada paid poverty-level wages for decades. He added that agricultural production in Quebec has always depended on the exploitation of these workers who spend months labouring here every year.

For 50 years, he continued, governments have kept these workers away from the rest of society, excluded from it, kept them from settling here permanently. RATTMAQ's work with migrant agricultural workers, he noted, reveals the bankruptcy of the systems, which can be seen through workers' complaints, their distress and precarity. He demanded access to permanent residence and the right to unionization.

Sohnia Karamat Ali of the Parc Extension Action Committee (CAPE) described Parc Extension as a "very diverse neighbourhood which has continuously received different waves of migrants [from] across the globe."[8] She decried the failure of the state over the years to offer decent, affordable housing to immigrants across Quebec and Canada.

"They are not just fighting for decent housing," she said of migrants fighting for immigration status. She pointed out that "under neo-liberal capitalism," governments do not uphold the rights of the marginalized and of workers, fundamental rights that belong to everyone, regardless of status. "Here, today," she said, "we strongly support this regularization campaign ... and demand social housing for all low income tenants." She said that "instead of blaming immigration or immigrants for the housing crisis," governments must provide all the basic fundamental rights to all human beings and provide a path to permanent residence.

Far from migrant labour being the cause of the economic crisis, said an organizer with Migrante Quebec, "it has often been the lifeblood that keeps the economy running, as was certainly demonstrated during the pandemic." She continued, "Migrants and refugees have the right to stand up for their rights, and the working people of Canada must recognize that their struggle is linked to the same fight." She demanded that the Canadian government "end its exploiting of international students, refugees and migrant workers," and that employers who exploit migrant workers be sanctioned with "real penalties."

She concluded, "Canada must take responsibility for its role in displacing people globally and stop using migration as a tool of capitalist destruction. We stand in solidarity with the workers, both migrant and Canadian born, in the fight against the system that exploits us all. Today, we say Nothing moves without us! We are workers! We are not disposable!"[9]