[antiwar-van] Fri: Emergency - Protest Jason Kenney!

[Harsha W.]

All out to Protest Immigration and Deportation Minister Jason Kenney is in
Vancouver!

Friday, May 14, 2010
Time: 5:15pm - 6:15pm
Location: CIC Regional Headquarters, 2nd floor board room
Street: 800 Burrard St
City/Town: Vancouver, BC

Immigration Minister Jason Kenny will be hosting a "roundtable discussion
on immigration reform". That would be the heinous Bill C-11 that was
introduced on March 30, 2010.

Fire Jason Kenney: No One Is Illegal!
Right to Stay, Freedom to Move, Right to Return

* Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney’s Record

Migrants and asylum seekers in Canada are facing greater difficulties with
fundamental shifts in immigration and refugee policy under Kenney.
Deportations from Canada have skyrocketed 50 % over the last decade, with
over 13,000 deportations in the past year. Kenney’s 2009 annual report
reveals a decreasing “target” of 11,000 people in the number of accepted
asylum seekers and sponsored family members.

Since the Conservatives have been in power, the number of approved asylum
claims has dropped by 56%. Kenney’s recent refugee reforms create two-tier
of refugees, a racist system based on nationality. These changes also
download financial and social support of 2,000 refugees to private
organizations, and drastically limit certain legal avenues available to
refugee claimants. What Kenney is misleadingly declaring a ‘much-needed
overhaul’, is actually a dismantling of an already minimal refugee
protection system. The ‘refugee case backlog’ that Kenney refers to is one
created by the Tories themselves by understaffing the Immigration and
Refugee Board; in fact, one of the few appointments that Kenney did make
to the Board was a known anti-gay activist.

In 2009 Kenney imposed visa requirements on Mexico and the Czech Republic
by suggesting refugees from those countries were “system-abusers”. Though
subsequently all released, Kenney justified the two-month long detention
of 76 Tamil asylum seekers in B.C. by falsely suggesting they were
‘security threats’.

As avenues for refugees and permanent residency are decreasing, temporary
worker programs have proliferated under Kenney. Always under the threat of
deportation, workers endure long hours, low pay, and lack of basic labour
standards.  Permanently Temporary: this is the immigration model that
corporations dream of. More people are now admitted to Canada under
Temporary Employment Authorizations than as permanent residents.

In October 2009, the federal government proposed major changes to Canada’s
Temporary Foreign Worker Program. One regulation limits most workers to a
term of four years, after which a six-year ban will be imposed before
workers can return to Canada. To ensure a constant state of fear and
vulnerability, Kenney has overseen at least five work-place raids in
Ontario, where Canadian Border Service Agency officers stormed farms,
factories, home, and greenhouses. The largest immigration raid in recent
Canadian history took place in April 2009 when over 100 non-status and
migrant workers were detained.

Habtom Kibraeb, an Eritrean refugee, committed suicide in Halifax from
fear of a pending deportation in March 2010. In December 2008, a
24-year-old woman was deported to Mexico, where she was murdered. She had
applied for asylum in Canada twice. This tragedy occurred while Kenney was
imposing visa requirements on Mexicans, claiming they were bogus.

Kenney has also defended his oppressive and racist comments:
•	Based on his roots in the conservative Canadian Tax Payers Federation,
Kenney declared that he wanted provincial governments to curb social
assistance – already grossly inadequate - to refugee claimants.
•	He wants to get tough on immigrants who do not speak the colonial
languages of English and French.
•	He has said that he will not tolerate immigrants who are not
“integrating” or refugee claimants who are “bogus”. He is currently the
subject of a Federal Court inquiry on whether such public statements have
interfered with the independence of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
•	He supports Quebec’s Bill C-94 that discriminately denies women who wear
the niqab access to essential public services including health and
education, thus perpetuating gender inequality by forcing what not to wear
on them.
•	He spoke against a UN report documenting poverty, discrimination, and
racial profiling in Canada.

In 2009, Kenney introduced a new citizenship guide which listed the
obligations of citizenship as including getting a job. Notably omitted is
mention of the rights of lesbian, gay, and trans people. It was later
revealed that Kenney had deliberately removed LGBT references from the
guide. The guide does, however, make ample room for Canada’s military
history, including a recruitment advertisement.

Kenney has played a key role in influencing foreign policy by:
•	Labelling Iraq war resisters as bogus refugee claimants.
•	Barring British MP George Galloway because of his opposition to the
military occupation of Afghanistan.
•	Pulling Canada out of the World Conference Against Racism.
•	Cutting ESL funding to the Canadian Arab Federation due to their
involvement in pro-Palestinian efforts.

It’s time to give Kenney the boot – Fire Kenney!

www.nooneisillegal.org