Militant
Canada-Wide Actions in Defence of Migrant Rights
Permanent Status for All Now!
Picket outside the Toronto constituency office of the Minister of Immigration Marco
Mendicino,
September 20, 2020.
Actions were held across Canada
on September 18, 19 and 20 to press the demand for Status For All!
There were marches, rallies, pickets (in front of the constituency
offices of the Prime Minister in Montreal and the Minister of
Immigration in Toronto, as well as other MPs), online rallies and banner drops in many
cities, including St. John's, Halifax,
Charlottetown, Fredericton, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, St.
Catharines, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Kelowna and
Vancouver.  These actions,
along with an open letter issued by the Migrant Rights Network and
supported by more than 300 organizations, came just ahead of the
reconvening of Parliament on September 23. Status for All! means that
the federal government must put an end to categorizing and
discriminating against people seeking to establish status in
Canada. No One Is Illegal. Status is necessary for one and all --
migrant workers, undocumented workers, refugee claimants and
international students -- to access health care and education, for
family reunification, to ensure basic protections and services.
Migrant workers are essential workers, part of the Canadian
working class. They are the mainstay in some sectors including
agriculture, food processing, seniors' care and child care, the
hospitality industry, academic research, etc., yet a myriad of
barriers are erected to block them from achieving permanent resident
status and citizenship. It
is a matter of principle that if people are good enough to work or to
study in Canada they are good enough to have full status. The
ruling circles, their political representatives, mass media and others
talk a lot about "building back better" from the pandemic and how the
changing
international situation requires Canada to champion human rights. The
image presented is laughable. Canada lectures Venezuela, China
and others about "human rights abuses," interferes in the internal
affairs of others, supports dictatorial regimes like that of Duterte in
the Philippines, arms the Saudi regime to suppress its own people and
wage war on Yemen, while the Indigenous peoples, temporary foreign
workers and immigrants, refugees and other sections of the working
class are denied basic rights. Holding governments to account is an
issue for all Canadians. First and foremost, it means using one's own
voice and taking a stand in defence of the rights of all. Status for
All! is one such demand. Accountability begins at home!
This article was published in
Number 64 - September 24, 2020
Article Link:
Militant
Canada-Wide Actions in Defence of Migrant Rights: Permanent Status for All Now!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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