[antiwar-van] NOII Alert: Kenney reintroduces Human Smuggling Bill

Sat Jun 18 10:04:59 PDT 2011

Linked at: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=4303

SCRAP ANTI-MIGRANT BILL C-4!
STOP KENNEY, HARPER AND THE TORIES!

The People v. Kenney
Freedom to move
Right to stay, and to Return
We are many.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Minister of Censorship and
Deportation Jason Kenney have announced that they are re-introducing Human
Smuggling Bill C4 (previously Bill C49). This is despite previous Bill C49
being rejected by all opposition parties and hundreds of community, legal,
health, human rights, and migrant justice groups.

This is a bill modeled after Australia’s internationally condemned
policies of mandatory detention and human rights abuses against
asylum-seekers. This bill proposes mandatory detention without review by
the Immigration and Refugee board for 12 months; denial of the right to
apply for permanent resident status until five years have passed since
favourable determination of the protection claim; denial of access to
relief based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, temporary resident
permits or refugee travel documents for five years or longer; and denial
of the right to appeal an unfavourable determination of protection claim
to the Refugee Appeal Division of the board. The full text of the Bill is
here: http://bit.ly/irB3jm

Under the banner of combating human smuggling and deterring the arrival of
boats such as the MV Sun Sea, this is a bill that blatantly criminalizes
refugees and targets them for imprisonment and/or deportation. By today’s
standards, Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad would have been
considered a human smuggling operation!

Read an extensive Backgrounder below.

*TAKE ACTION*

It is imperative that people are aware of the implications of this bill,
and organize to defeat it!

1) Download, post, share, and distribute these “I am a Human Smuggler”
series: http://bit.ly/lEiRTW

2) Organize a rally, press conference, flash mob, or community meeting
against this bill. Write a statement or public release expressing your
opposition. Invite a speaker to your meeting. If you need, email us
noii-van at resist.ca for ideas and suggestions.

3) Contact your MP and demand that this bill be scrapped. Find your MP:
http://bit.ly/mfMkVq

4) Let Jason Kenney know what you think about his racist anti-migrant bil.
Call him 403-225-3480 or 613-992-2235; Email kennej at parl.gc.ca; Twitter
@kenneyjason

5) The story is currently getting a lot of coverage. Write your comments
in online stories or write a letter to the editor – make a difference in
public discourse! When you write a letter to the editor you must include
your name, mailing address and daytime phone number of the writer; state
“Letter to the Editor” in the subject line; and content should be in the
body of the email. Keep them short (under 100 words). Globe and Mail:
letters at globeandmail.com, Vancouver Sun: sunletters at png.canwest.com,
Vancouver Province: provletters at png.canwest.com, 24 Hours: news at
sunmedia.ca, Metro News:
http://www.metronews.ca/Vancouver/comment/lettereditor, National Post:
letters at nationalpost.com, Georgia Straight: letters at straight.com,
Toronto Star: lettertoed at thestar.ca

6) Follow No One Is Illegal’s People v. Kenney Campaign. You can read a
factsheet about Kenney’s record on immigration and refugee policy, ten
reasons why we oppose Harper, and more:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?page_id=4139

>> Scrap Anti-Migrant Bill C 4!
>> Release Detained Asylum-Seekers!
>> Right to Stay, Freedom to Move, Right to Return!

It is not human smuggling that need be combated. It is the violence of
immigration controls and displacement that must be targeted, struggled
against, and defeated. No One Is Illegal!

www.nooneisillegal.org
www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
https://twitter.com/noii_vancouver

*BACKGROUND ON BILL C 4*

> Kenney and the Tories are justifying Bill C49 with the false rhetoric of
“illegals”.

THE REALITY: Migrants who arrive irregularly – whether by boat or with the
assistance of smugglers are not illegal. There is no “queue” for refugee
claimants. Refugees are forced from their homes in emergency situations
due to human rights abuses committed during wars, military occupations, or
persecution. We must understand that they undertake long and dangerous
journeys to protect their lives and the lives of their families. According
to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, to which Canada is a party, there
are no penalties on refugees who arrive without pre-authorization and
irregularly.

> Bill C4 is being framed as a means to combat “human smuggling”.

THE REALITY: Many refugees have no choice but to use irregular means,
including resorting to smugglers, to flee persecution. A report by the
International Labour Organization discusses how many smuggling operations
are “difficult to distinguish from legitimate work of travel agencies or
labour recruitment agencies.” It is not criminal organizations but
anti-immigration policies that are the biggest facilitators of human
smuggling. Given increasingly restrictive border policies, how are most
people able to migrate if not with the assistance of smuggling operations?
As written by Professor James C. Hathaway, “Human smugglers play a
critical role in assisting refugees to reach safety. Canada and other
developed countries created the market on which smugglers depend by
erecting (literal and virtual) migration walls around their territories.”
The rhetoric against human smuggling is not intended to ‘protect’ victims
of smuggling (who are routinely detained and deported), but to reinforce
securitization of the border. Any attempt to further criminalize human
smuggling will ensure that migrants forced to move irregularly across
borders will do so in more dangerous conditions, at higher cost and face
further exploitation. This is simply unacceptable.

> Kenney and the Tories say that Bill C4 would not harm refugees.

THE REALITY: Bill C-4 would give the Minister the power to single out for
special punishment refugees who are suspected of having fled by means of
smugglers. Asylum seekers, including children, suspected of using a
smuggler will be subject to mandatory detention for at least the first
year after arrival, with no chance of a detention review. They will not
have the right to appeal a negative refugee decision and will be denied
access to health coverage. They will be prohibited from obtaining
permanent residency and from sponsoring their family members for a period
of five years even after obtaining refugee status, during which time their
status could be revoked and they could face deportation. Though not well
publicized, the Bill also gives vast new powers to detain and arrest
non-citizens, including permanent residents, based on mere suspicion of
criminality. This is a shameful and inhumane piece of legislation.

> Kenney and the Tories say that Bill C4 is part of Canada’s positive
record on immigration.

Bill C-4 (previously Bill C 49) is the latest in a series of drastic
changes including Bill C-50 and Bill C-11. Bill C-50 has given the
Immigration Minister immense powers to arbitrarily reject visas (permanent
resident, visitor etc) without any Court review and to to issue quotas and
restrictions. Bill C-11, passed with minimal opposition, has created two
tiers of refugees, establishing a racist hierarchy based on nationality.
As avenues for refugees and permanent residency are being slashed and
deportations are increasing, exploitative temporary worker programs have
proliferated. Last year, major changes resulted in limiting most migrant
workers to a term of four years, after which a six-year ban will be
imposed before workers can return to Canada.

Canada’s immigration and refugee system is not generous. It is the result
of a perfected system of social control, containment, and commodification.
Instead, No One is Illegal-Vancouver asserts the basic human right to
safety, mobility, and protection. The only crime that migrants have
committed is transgressing this imposed settler-colonial border. We
encourage you to join us in rejecting and standing up against repressive,
racist, and exclusionary ideologies and policies, and instead encourage
compassion, solidarity, respect for life, and justice for all refugees.

*FURTHER RESOURCES*

> Factsheet on Kenney and Tories Record on Immigration:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=1027

> Video of No One Is Illegal Toronto forum on human smuggling:
http://www.youtube.com/NoOneIsIllegalVan#p/c/569429AE3D5D7089/29/OhFuyQAVYS0

> Myths and Realities about Tamil refugees on MV Sun Sea:
http://rabble.ca/news/2010/08/seven-myths-about-tamil-refugees

> Canadian Council of Refugees Resource Page on Bill C 4 / c 49:
http://ccrweb.ca/en/c49

> List of hundreds of organizations call for defeat of human smuggling bill:
http://ccrweb.ca/en/organizations-calling-defeat-bill-c-49

> Globe and Mail, “Smuggling bill endorsements not all they seem”
http://bit.ly/bKdo1Y

www.nooneisillegal.org
www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
www.twitter.com/noii_vancouver

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No One is Illegal-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories is a grassroots
anti-colonial migrant justice group with leadership from members of
migrant and/or racialized backgrounds. We strive and struggle for the
right to remain, the freedom to move, and the right to return. As a
movement for self-determination that challenges the ideology of
immigration controls, we take action to combat racial profiling, detention
and deportation, the national security apparatus, law enforcement
brutality, and exploitative working conditions of migrants. The ongoing
apartheid reality instituted through reserves and sweatshops is one that
must be fundamentally uprooted and transformed. We envision a humanity
where everyone has the right to sustenance and the ability to provide it,
where we are free of oppression, misery, and exploitation, and are able to
live meaningfully in relationship to one another and in reverence for
Mother Earth that sustains us.

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group