[Bloquez l'empire!] (Wednesday!) Protest and Picket: Denounce Racism and Incompetence at the IRB! (Dec. 14 :: NOON :: MONTREAL) Justice and Dignity for all Immigrants and Refugees!

[No One is Illegal Montreal]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 11:12:01 -0800 (PST)
From: sans frontieres! <sansfrontieres at resist.ca>

-- DENOUNCE RACISM AND INCOMPETENCE AT THE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE BOARD

-- JUSTICE AND DIGNITY FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

::::::::::
PROTEST AND PICKET
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
NOON
IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE BOARD
Complexe Guy-Favreau
200 Rene-Levesque West
(between Jeanne-Mance and St-Urbain)
Metro Place d'Armes or Metro Place-des-arts
::::::::::

INFO: sansfrontieres at resist.ca or 514-848-7583.

Organized by Solidarity Across Borders and The Human Rights Action Committee; 
with the support of the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian 
Refugees, No One Is Illegal-Montreal and others.

Join us and stand in solidarity with the struggle of Montreal-area refugees!


BACKGROUND:

On the initiative of refugee members of the Human Rights Action Committee 
(HRAC), Solidarity Across Borders will be demonstrating at the Immigration and 
Refugee Board (IRB), to protest racism and incompetence in the IRB process.

Last year, the Human Rights Action Committee -- a self-organized group of 
mainly Punjabi refugee claimants from India -- organized a continuous four-day, 
three-night rotating hunger strike and vigil outside the IRB, in the middle of 
a December cold chill. Their protest highlighted flaws in the IRB process. Two 
members of the HRAC even refused to have their refugee hearing before an IRB 
judge they considered biased -- a political appointee who used to be the Quebec 
Immigration Minister -- and courageously demanded a hearing before another IRB 
judge.

[Article at: http://www.cmaq.net/en/node.php?id=19259
  Photos at: http://gallery.cmaq.net/Refugee-camp-out-at-Montreal-IRB]

Almost exactly one year later, several Montreal-area refugee claimants, from 
different groups and communities, will be sharing their personal testimonies of 
racism, bias and unjust treatment by the IRB, as well as the incompetence of 
the entire refugee determination process.

For several years, active campaigns in Montreal have mobilized against 
deportations and detentions. The beginning of the struggle for thousands of 
refugee claimants is the IRB, where a fundamentally biased and flawed process 
results in many claimants' claims being rejected, and subsequent deportation 
orders down the line.

There are many complaints about the IRB process that refugees have highlighted:

- IRB decisions are made by single member panels, by individuals who are 
political appointees, often with little to no expertise in human rights, and 
ignorant of the lived reality of migrants.

- There is absolutely no appeal, on the merits, of IRB decisions; a single 
person makes the crucial decision about whether someone will be recognized as a 
refugee or not; an Appeals Division was promised by then-Immigration Minister 
Denis Coderre in 2002, but has never been implemented; instead, church 
sanctuaries have become Canada's de facto appeals division, an imperfect and 
difficult option only open to a tiny proportion of refused refugee claimants.

- The IRB process is a lottery, with many judges having notoriously high 
rejection rates, while a few others are more reasonable; in the case of two 
brothers from the same refugee camp in the Middle East, one was accepted, and 
the other rejected, because they had two different IRB judges; the IRB lottery 
is not due process.

- Too many IRB judges do not read the vast documentation of human rights abuses 
and persecution presented by claimants, and instead "cut & paste" from previous 
decisions, and often make glaring factual errors.

- Many judges are systematically biased against claimants from certain regions 
or countries.

- Refugee claimants are often the victims of inadequate representation, and 
lack the financial resources to obtain competent counsel. Meanwhile, 
translation at the IRB is notoriously bad.


On Wednesday, December 14, at NOON, refugee claimants and their allies will 
speak out about racism and incompetence at the IRB, as part of broader demands 
for a full and inclusive regularization program for all non-status people in 
Canada.

*** We encourage all social justice allies in the Montreal-area to take the 
time to join us, and stand in solidarity with the struggle for dignity and 
justice of Montreal's non-status community. ***

INFO:
sansfrontieres at resist.ca
514-848-7583
http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org