[Bloquez l'empire!] [KADER] Report: Kader supporters visit Finley's home riding

Fri Sep 14 10:38:07 PDT 2007

KADER SUPPORTERS PAY SURPRISE VISIT TO MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION'S HOME RIDING

:::::: Photo essay: http://photos.cmaq.net/v/Kader_Simcoe_delegation/

:::::: Article in Dunnville Chronicle (in Finley's riding):
www.dunnvillechronicle.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=690
837&catname=Local%20News&classif=

:::::: Report from Pointe Libertaire: http://lapointelibertaire.org/node/330

Early morning on Friday, 7 September, a group of friends and
supporters of Abdelkader Belaouni from Montreal, Toronto and Brantford
found themselves in Simcoe, Ontario. Simcoe is in rural Ontario, about
two hours west of Toronto by car. It is the site of the main riding
office of Diane Finley, Minister of Immigration of Canada.

After spending more than 20 months in sanctuary in St. Gabriel's
church, in the Montreal neighbourhood of Point St. Charles, Mr.
Belaouni asked his supporters to make the eight-hour trip to the
constituency offices of Finley.

Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers' Centre, who travelled from
Montreal to join the delegation, explained, "We went to Simcoe to
support Kader's right to stay in Canada. While Kader has had to live
this every day for 615 days now, it seems to be very far from the
Minister's thoughts. So we decided to bring the issue home to her."

Abdelkader Belaouni entered sanctuary on 1 January 2006 after being
threatened with deportation by Immigration Canada (background:
www.soutienpourkader.net). Since then, support for him has grown into
a campaign that includes neighbourhood organizations, NGOs, networks
and faith-based organizations throughout Quebec and across Canada -
and even overseas.

Belaouni and his supporters have attempted to bring his case to the
attention of various Immigration Ministers, most recently Diane
Finley. Despite hundreds of letters of support, phone calls, faxes,
despite intervention by members of Parliament and party leaders, press
conferences, pickets, rallies, and delegations to Ottawa, Diane Finley
has remained silent. On 17 May, a letter endorsed by 70 heads of
organizations, representing some 250 associations working in broadly
diverse sectors of Quebec society, made an urgent, collective request
for a meeting with Finley to resolve the situation. To date, she has
not responded.

Arriving in Simcoe at 9:30am, a small delegation entered Finley's
office and asked to speak to the Minister. Simultaneously, another
group arrived in the rural hamlet of Dunnville, Ontario, the location
of Finley's second riding office.

The Dunnville office, located in the local Chamber of Commerce, turned
out to be run by a volunteer who explained that Diane Finley never
visited the office but occasionally sent a representative. Her
representative was not present that day. The volunteer listened to the
story, and took a file of information to pass on to Finley's
representative next time she visited. Those at the Dunnville office
then travelled to Simcoe, about an hour away, to reinforce the picket
in front of that office.

Meanwhile, in Simcoe, the delegation had been informed by an
aggressive staff that Diane Finley was not there and that they should
leave immediately. The delegation - comprising Henaway, Steve Watson
(National Representative, Education, of the Canadian Auto Workers),
Marcel Sévigny (former City Councillor for Kader's neighbourhood of
Point St. Charles (PSC) and an active member of the Pointe
Libertaire), as well as a member of Kader's support committee -
insisted that they would not leave until they had an appointment with
Finley.

By this time, a few dozen others - members of No-One is
Illegal-Toronto, the CAW local in Brantford, the Toronto-based Ontario
Coalition against Poverty (OCAP), the Southern Ontario Sanctuary
Committee, Solidarity across Borders and others - had formed a picket
outside the office, distributing information flyers and asking
community members to support status for Mr. Belaouni.

"Immigration Canada's decision to deport Kader was discriminatory; it
entirely failed to take into account Kader's blindness. It also
ignored the fact that he has already had his life uprooted twice: the
first time by a brutal civil war; and the second time by a government
programme in the United States which swept up all men who were born in
Muslim-majority countries," explained Nora Butler Burke of the 2110
Centre for Gender Advocacy, who had joined the delegation from
Montreal.

Inside, an agreement was reached. Three delegation members would leave
and a fourth would wait while the staff called Ottawa to ask for an
appointment with Finley. A call was made and a message left. The
delegation member was asked to wait outside and come back in an hour.
Duly re-entering the office, he was not given a date for a meeting. He
was instead told that the message had been passed on and that he would
have to leave. The door was locked behind him. The staff left the
office shortly afterwards.

"The power - and the responsibility - to change the situation is in
the hands of Diane Finley," said Henaway. "We are here today to ask
her to act without further delay in Mr. Belaouni's case, as she has in
other cases. 615 days is far too long. Meanwhile, support is only
continuing to grow. She should move now."

--------------------------------------
Support Committee for Abdelkader Belaouni
soutienkader at gmail.com
www.soutienpourkader.net
tel. 514 859 9023

To receive updates about Kader's campaign for status in Canada, send an
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