Status for All!
Cross Country Actions Demand Permanent Resident Status for All Undocumented Persons
Toronto, March 16, 2024
On March 16 and 17, from coast to coast, working people held militant actions in eight cities to affirm the rights of all, and to demand that the federal government fulfil its commitment to regularize the status of all undocumented persons, who meet a basic residency requirement, by granting them permanent residency. The actions called by the Migrant Rights Network were the country-wide launch of Migrant Spring, a series of protests, educational activities and actions.
The actions highlighted the commitment of Immigration Minister Marc Miller, made on December 14, 2023, that in the spring of 2024, he would bring to cabinet a proposal for a "broad and comprehensive" regularization program for those in Canada without documentation. A prior December 2021 commitment for a regularization program indicates the ongoing prevarication of the Trudeau government on this important matter. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been uprooted and deported, despite many of these being workers who provided essential services during the pandemic. These actions affirmed that people cannot be deemed illegal and workers cannot be treated as disposable. They rejected workers being pitted against each other, and that immigration status and citizenship is defined on an archaic basis in which the people have no say. Participants in these actions also highlighted Canada's role in U.S.-led aggression and war abroad, that contributes to displacement and migration.
This situation underscores that working people can only rely on their own stands and actions to defend the rights of all and for working people to lay their claims on society. It is a matter of what is needed to bring into being pro-social arrangements that meet people's needs, not the considerations of the ruling elite and private interests, who decide life and death matters of asylum and immigration on self-serving and pragmatic calculations, while the people are supposed to beg for mercy.
Montreal
At the action in Montreal on March 16, Solidarity Across Borders and the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC) organized an event outside Parc metro station. Approximately 150 determined people, with their placards and banners, participated in the event, including national minorities hailing from India, the Philippines, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere.
"We have been waiting almost
three years for a regularization program that has been
promised by the Trudeau government," said one woman
representing IWC. However, she continued, "it's not coming in
the terms that we have been demanding [...] a regularization
program that is accessible and [...] without exclusions, for
everyone. We also ask Quebec to accept and to be a partner in
such a regularization program.
She also demanded that the Canadian government "stop supporting imperialism and colonialism [around] the globe. We can think about Mexico and other countries in Latin America where Canadian mining conglomerates are exploiting the people [...] the workers [and] the land. [...] And of course, those mining companies also cause displacement of populations that cause people to migrate.
"Today, as we march for a regularization program, we also think of Congo, [...] Yemen, and [...] Palestine." She called for "a free Palestine" which "means an end to apartheid [...] an immediate ceasefire" and an end to the Canadian government sending arms to Israel.
A young organizer with PINAY Quebec -- an association of domestic workers from the Philippines -- and a member of Migrante Quebec, said, "We speak today for those running from imperialist plunder and aggression [...] on behalf of those who face abuse in their workplaces and discrimination in this society [...] who face detention and deportation. Today, on this Migrant Spring day, we say, no more running, no more hiding. Today we call out 'Stop the Abuse! Stop the Discrimination! Stop the Detentions and Deportations!'" She added: "We Are People! We Are Not Illegal!
"I come from a migrant family. My mother came here as a live-in caregiver. And after years of separation, our whole family finally joined her. I know how my mother faced hardships as a migrant worker in Quebec.
"We know workers running from
abusive employers who end up losing their status [...] about
migrant workers in our community suffering from massive debt
due to labour trafficking, exploitation of illegal recruiters,
unscrupulous consultants, and bourgeois lawyers. Many migrants
with precarious status in my community face physical, mental,
and sexual abuse, have no recourse. Many who fall ill or
become pregnant lack access to adequate health care. And yet
we remain scapegoats to the ills of this society. Scapegoats
for lack of housing [...] joblessness and a broken immigration
system [...] to the loss of culture and language. How
convenient after plundering our economy and propping up
dictators in our country!"
She also recounted how those who immigrate to Canada are also destabilized by being denied support or recognition of their culture. She recounted her experience that Canada takes advantage of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial arrangements in the Philippines to exploit those seeking a brighter future by coming to Canada.
"I stand here today to give justice to that future. It isn't enough to work hard [...]. We must stand and fight for that future. It is a vision where working people like us have dignity and justice. It must be a future where capitalist exploitation no longer exists, where imperialist plunder and war are no more, where climate justice saves the world from capitalist greed and destruction of the environment. Fight for a world where a massive displacement of people due to these factors ends. Fight for a future where working people are no longer disposable. Our call for regularization is not merely a plea for Canada to take us in. It is a call for working class justice. It is a call to fight back," she said.
Shortly thereafter, the crowd took to the street to raise awareness in the neighbourhood about the situation facing migrants in Quebec and the immediate need for a regularization program for Status for All!
March 16, 2024
Toronto
In Toronto, more than 1,000 people from various migrant rights organizations and their allies gathered at Christie Pits where they heard speakers, some without status, demand that the Trudeau government make good on its promise to regularize the status of migrant workers in Canada. It was pointed out that far from keeping this pledge made in December 2021, the Trudeau government has stepped up deportations by more than 104 per cent in the last year.
The protesters marched from Christie Pits along Bloor Street to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's constituency office chanting Status for All!, We Want Justice!, Stop the Deportations and other slogans.
At the midpoint, Syed Hussan, Executive Director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, spoke about the ongoing political fight to achieve status for all despite the subterfuge of the Trudeau Liberals. They continue to apply a racist immigration policy aimed at recruiting temporary foreign workers for the rich and their enterprises to be exploited and abused and then simply sent back home after their contracts are completed. In the meantime, those workers who remain in Canada without status because their families back home continue to need financial support face the daily threat of deportation despite being called "essential."
Hussan also highlighted the treatment of the Palestinian people. He noted that the Temporary Visa Program (TVP) announced by Canada on January 9 to expedite the processing of applications from up to 1,000 Palestinians living in Gaza who have family ties in Canada, has only processed 23 applications to date and that not one Gazan has yet arrived in Canada. He compared the treatment of the Palestinian people with that of the Ukrainian refugees, a million of whose applications were expedited and who received state subsidies to help them settle in Canada, calling that a blatant example of racism.
A young Palestinian named Saleem, who has lost 43 members of his family in the genocide, spoke about the immense hardships faced by the besieged people of Gaza. He noted that the application process for those wishing to come to Canada through the TVP process was made extremely complicated with applicants required to provide information unheard of in the past. Saleem pointed out that the solidarity of the Canadian people in support of the just cause of the Palestinian people has been of great importance in the struggle for their homeland.
The march ended at Freeland's office where participants occupied the nearby Bloor/Spadina intersection. There more speeches were made demanding justice and protection for all migrant workers and refugees and status for all so that everyone can live with dignity and security.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 20 - March 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS542012.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca