Rights and Full Status for All Workers

Militant Action Demands Permanent Residency for Migrants and Asylum Seekers

On Saturday, May 23, activists staged a protest outside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's constituency office to demand permanent residency for migrants and refugee claimants. More than 100 protesters were on the scene in accordance with physical distancing measures, others participated on bicycles, while still others joined a caravan of 200 vehicles that circled, honking their horns.

The action was organized by Stand Up for Dignity. It followed an open letter to the Prime Minister, May 7, calling for the regularization of the precarious status of migrants and asylum seekers. These people, protesters noted, have been working in residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs) and retirement homes since the beginning of the pandemic crisis. They work as patient attendants, security guards, etc. If asylum seekers are good enough to work in essential services, they are also good enough to stay as permanent residents in Canada, the protesters emphasized.

Frantz André, from the Action Committee on Non-Status Persons (CAPSS), explained: "We have a mobile demonstration right now asking Justin Trudeau's government  for a regularization program leading to permanent residency for those who continue to go out into the street and take care of our seniors. These people are taking the risk of  having themselves and their families infected and contaminated. They are recognized as guardian angels. They are human beings before being guardian angels, and we hope that in being guardian angels, they do not die.

"Mr. Trudeau and the other Members of Parliament have a duty to provide this regularization program. We know that this has been done in the past and that it can be done again. Show your solidarity with the Haitian community and others who also have people going into seniors' centres, CHSLDs and private residences. We had Mr. François Marcelin, one of our compatriots, working two jobs to take care of his family, his wife and three children, who in the span of a few days contracted COVID-19. He died in the arms of his wife on April 16. His spouse now wants to return to Haiti because she feels that Canada abandoned him, did not give him permanent residence and did not take care of her husband."

Many people spoke out during the action, including Dr. Wilner Cayo, the representative of Stand Up for Dignity, who said: "You are on the front lines, you are being exploited by predatory agencies. You are being forgotten by a government swimming in surpluses. But you continue to show up to take care of our seniors. In no time at all you have become our guardian angels. You have been loudly and widely acclaimed by provincial and federal governments which, although they praise you, refuse to treat you as human beings. We have come to tell you that you are full-fledged human beings. We are proud of your dedication.

"You are hauled around from centre to centre, where your life is placed at risk so that the lives of others can be saved. Yet, many amongst yourselves who care for our elders are denied the care that every normal citizen is entitled to. Your children, even those born here in Quebec, are not eligible for subsidized child care. Governments are taking extraordinary measures in these extraordinary times, but not for you. You fear that afterwards you will be sacrificed and deported. With good reason. Anything is possible when petty politics takes precedence over humanist values.

"You're exploited by agencies and you feel you're being used by governments. You fear that once the pandemic is over, you will have been considered nothing more than cannon fodder within this system that takes advantage of you. Your work is exemplary, you even pay for it with your life. Several of your colleagues have died an anonymous death, like Marcelin François, a patient attendant who died in combat. Were fate to strike, you would be left without any savings to leave behind because at minimum wage you cannot afford decent housing. Your socio-economic context is more than precarious. Why should you have to continue to endure the fear of deportation?

"Gentlemen First Ministers, stop passing the buck. Actually recognize the guardian angels; not in word but in deed. You've taken many exceptional measures, extraordinary decisions. Granting permanent residency to these migrants would be a sensible and coherent thanks to these people. Quebec needs them and they need Quebec, so let's show solidarity. This is not charity; they deserve it.

"François Legault said that Quebec was lucky to have them, but are they the unlucky ones in having this kind of leader in power? Thank them by doing the right thing, by supporting this initiative and granting permanent residency to these brave men and women. It's a matter of dignity."

Organizers are planning other actions in defence of migrant workers and asylum seekers, many of whom are of Haitian origin, who live in Montreal North, considered one of the boroughs the most affected by COVID-19 in Montreal.

Note

For a video of the intervention at the May 23 action by Frantz André of CAPSS, click here.

This article was published in

Number 38 - June 2, 2020

Article Link:
Rights and Full Status for All Workers: Militant Action Demands Permanent Residency for Migrants and Asylum Seekers

    

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