[antiwar-van] Updated- Sun June 1- Scrap Racist Bill C50!

[Harsha]

- please forward widely -


* part of cross country actions in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and
elsewhere *

COMMUNITY RALLY TO SCRAP RACIST BILL C 50 !
refuse to be invisible! join the fight against racist immigration laws

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SUNDAY JUNE 1 AT 2 PM
RALLY AT SURREY IMMIGRATION OFFICES

- In Centralcity Shopping Centre (north entrance by SFU Surrey Tower)
- Address: 13450 102nd Avenue Surrey (between 134th and 135th Street)
- 1 short block from Surrey Central Skytrain Station!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[[[ Organized by No One Is Illegal Vancouver, Supported by Al Awda
Vancouver, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity
Society, Building Bridges Human Rights Group, Canadian Arab Federation,
Canadian Muslim Union, Coalition of South Asian Women Against Violence,
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, Filipino Nurses Support Group, Hospital
Employees Union, Indigenous Action Movement, Industrial Workers of the
World, Iranian Federation of Refugees, International Solidarity Movement,
Justice for Migrant Workers, Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, La Surda
Latin American Collective, Latin American Connexions, Neworld Theatre, 
Philippine Women Centre of B.C., Rhizome Cafe, Salaam Vancouver,
SIKLAB-B.C- Overseas Filipino workers, Simon Fraser Public Interest
Research Group,  Siraat Muslim Artists Collective, South Asian Network for
Secularism and Democracy, Teaching Support Staff Union. ]]]


Recently the Conservative government introduced a series of amendments to
the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act buried in Bill c-50. This
undemocratic move aims to sneaks in significant changes that will
perpetuate a restrictive, exploitative, and racist immigration policy in
Canada.

Concerned? You should be! Join us in a rally to call for the scrapping of
Bill C-50 and demand justice and dignity for migrants.

For more information, email noii-van at resist.ca or call 778 552 2099 Visit
us at: http://noii-van.resist.ca

---------------------

BACKGROUND

* Multilingual Bill C50 Factsheets:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=758

* Finley Admits New Bill Will Limit Intake (Indo-Canadian Link)
http://www.thelinkpaper.ca/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1211303696&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

* Bill C50 is a serious threat to immigrant rights (Rabble)
http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?sh_itm=0bbd3e9977c3055d3d057cee0df2edb6&rXn=1&

* New immigration legislation encourages discrimination (Vancouver Sun)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=128294a8-763f-4baa-beb9-a19c3ef0f883

* Joint statement by No One Is Illegal chapters:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=696


Recently the Conservative government introduced a series of amendments to
the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act buried in Bill c-50. This
undemocratic move sneaks in critical changes to immigration policy without
proposing any of those changes before Parliament.

The government is stating that these measures are a solution to the
growing backlog by essentially giving the Minister and her department the
power to kick people off the waiting list.

Under the proposed changes, even if someone meets the necessary- already
stringent- criteria for a visa (such as permanent resident, visitor etc),
the Minister can reject the application. The Minister will also have the
power to issue quotas and restrictions on the "category" of people.
Humanitarian and Compassionate applications no longer have to be examined
if the applicant is outside Canada. Finally, the Minister will have the
power to decide the order in which applications are processed, regardless
of when they are filed.

These sweeping changes will give enormous and arbitrary powers to the
Minister around application processing, while perpetuating a racist,
anti-poor, restrictive, and exploitative immigration policy based on
‘labour market needs’.

The major lobby for Bill C50 comes from business organizations, who want
immigrants to fulfill their need for disposable labour. These proposed
legislative changes come in the context of a global capitalist
reinforcement of labour flexibility as the guiding principle of
immigration policy. In conjunction with the Security and Prosperity
Partnership Agreement, it is clear that the priorities will be relatively
wealthy people, as well as increasingly vulnerable temporary migrant
workers.

The Conservative government says they are “welcoming record numbers of
newcomers”, however the reality is that the percentage of permanent
residents is decreasing while there is an increase of vulnerable temporary
migrant workers without basic rights. The favouring of migrant workers as
commodities is taking place in an increasingly hostile climate to family
class immigrants and refugees, who are perceived as security threats
and/or foreigners who are being too accommodated.

In respose to an overwhelming negative reaction to these amendements, the
Immigration Minister has recently been forced to attempt to spin these
regressive changes, including launching a intense advertising campaign
only in 'ethnic' media to help sell the bill and get it passed through the
House within the next few weeks!

Join us in an action to call for the scrapping of Bill C-50! Demand
justice and dignity for migrants- No One Is Illegal!